My name is Jakob, and if I ever had any doubts about my place in the family, they vanished the day I learned about the will. It wasn’t even a dramatic conversation when my parents broke the news to me. No, I found out by pure chance, by pure luck.
This happened a few months ago, when I went to visit them at their home in a small town outside Chicago. The same house I’d helped finance for the past five years: mortgage, occasional purchases, repairs.
I was the one who made sure everything ran smoothly. My brother Eric, on the other hand, did absolutely nothing. And when I say “nothing,” I mean absolutely nothing.
No job, no responsibility, just endless laziness and the expectation that life would hand him everything on a silver platter. And apparently, my parents were more than happy to offer him that life. That day, I was helping my father with some paperwork because, as always, neither he nor my mother could have done it alone.
He asked me to scan some documents, both legal and financial. I didn’t think much about it until I saw a folder titled “Estate Planning” and the words “Last Will and Testament.” I don’t usually check other people’s documents.
But my curiosity got the better of me. After all, I had provided them with a roof over their heads. So it seemed logical to ask how they were managing their assets for the future.
I opened the folder and read the words that saddened me. “Everything.” Literally, “everything” was supposed to go to Eric.
The house, the savings, the fortune. They didn’t even mention it to me, apart from a few obligatory remarks about how much they loved their two children. Equally.
Yes, of course, Jacob, exactly. That’s why their favorite got everything, and the one who kept them afloat wasn’t even mentioned. I felt completely stupid…
I’d exhausted myself for them, paid their bills, made sure they always had something to eat, while they sat there planning a future that had nothing to do with me. And Eric? He wasn’t just lazy. He wasn’t entitled to anything.
He never helped, never contributed a cent, but somehow he convinced our parents that he was entitled to everything. Maybe because he was the youngest child, maybe because they always spoiled him, or maybe because he knew how to earn their trust. Whatever the reason, they had already made their decision.
