1 - Family Ties

It was a rainy day, just like the typical funeral day that appears in films. His grandfather died the day before. Henry Norton, the head of the most powerful and influential family in the world. His grandson, William Norton, the youngest of the family, was deeply upset. He loved his grandfather mora than anyone. When he was a child he loved spending time with his grandfather who always told him stories about kings and queens and the conspiracy enviroment of the court. He really enjoyed hearing these stories but, as he was growing up, he felt that his grandfather had a special purpose, other than entertain him with them. But there will be no stories anymore. His grandfather was dead. This was an event that was anxiously waited for a long time by every member of the family. Although not everyone had the same type of anxiety. It is fair to say that some members of the family happily recieved the news of Henry´s death. Specially Julius Norton, the third son of Henry, and his wife Caterina. Julius always was different from his siblings. He was greedy and manipulative, just like the villian of his grandfather´s stories. And he never tried to hide it since he always felt proud of being that way. That is one of the reasons why Caterina and him were the perfect couple. They loved money more than anything. They would have sold their souls to the Devil if they had made a profitable deal. Opposite to Julius, William´s parents, Angelica and Thomas, never wanted this moment to come. They always knew this event would destroy their family. Angelica always felt her father´s death was going to start a war nobody knew when it would end. In Henry´s funeral, there was an strange enviroment. Everyone nerves were on edge since everybody wanted to know who was going to inherit the enmpire Henry built. Alexander Norton, the second son of Henry, was also nervous, but he tried to hide it. He was one of those people who never show his emotions. He always had a calm look, almost with no expression. He perfectly knew that the eyes are the window to the soul. So, he used that as a defensive method because no one could hurt him if they did not know what his weaknesses were. He, his wife Maria and his twins, Eric and Patrcik, arrived just in time to hear the will reading. Henry´s lawyer was reading the will in front of the anxious audience when, suddenly, a single name was pronunced. A name that shaked the foundations of the family more than any other. William Norton, the lawyer said.