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“So what, are you really just going to throw away your fortune and everything you’ve worked on?” Ransom muttered, still in disbelief that his whole family would be getting nothing. Sure he could maybe understand some family members, but really all of them!
“No. I’m giving everything away to Marta once the time is right-“
“What, your Brazilian nurse!”
His grandfather gave him a glare. “Marta has done more for me than anyone in this family. She’s had less than anyone of you but still done everything she can to take care of her family. That’s more than any of you have done.” He sighed
Ransom stood still for a minute. After being his research assistant for a year he knew better than to argue with his grandfather at this moment. “So you’re cutting everyone off, not just me?”
“Exactly, your mother already has a fortune built up from my own, I have no doubt that this’ll be more than a minor inconvenience.” He sat back in his chair and sighed “your uncle however has done nothing with the publishing company and still lives off my books, but I’m sure he’ll figure something out. He does have a lot of money in the bank.” He paused for a moment “although Meg's mother has been leeching off of Meg´s school tuition, I just gave her the last check I’ll ever give to either her or Meg.”
‘Makes sense’ he thought. Joni was a leech, he almost felt sorry for Meg. Almost.
“And the reason for cutting me out is?”
“You Ransom…despite your brilliant brain, have let your creativity die as soon as you open your mouth. You’ve helped me several times with my books. There’s no denying that you can be a brilliant author if you put your mind on it. I’ve given you several chances throughout the years to do something. But, times running out Ransom, you have to do something,” Harlan's voice was tired.
He stood still for a moment, brain carefully turning with the words uttered from his grandfather's mouth. “Wait do-do you mean that I still have time?” He paused, “I don’t understand, why tell me that I’m getting thrown out of your will if I still can do something?”
“Well I’m not dead yet am I?” Harlan smiled. “I’ll give you one last chance to do something, but time is ticking. Use that brain and do something good, something of your own and hey maybe I’ll eat my words. It won’t be the first time I’ve done it. If you succeed I’ll think again about taking your name back on the will.”
“You are aware of how manipulative you are, old bastard,” muttered Ransom. He was fully aware that Harlan could hear him, but he was too angry to think properly.
“Ransom calm down.” Harlan´s quiet and comforting voice cut through his thoughts. “I know you can do it, do you remember the last time you were my research assistant?”
“Yeah what of it? You want me to work as an assistant for the rest of my days” Ransom scoffed.
“None of that now” he reprimanded. “I do quite remember how you can come up with several brilliant plots alongside my own. I remember how you wrote down everything on a scrap piece of paper and threw it away.”
“What you read them, they were nothing more than silly stories old man”
“If you were to actually write something as brilliantly as what I read on that piece of paper, I would happily read it and maybe help you with publishing it Ransom,” Harlan paused to think “Actually, if you want nothing to do with Blood like Wine, I would happily give you contacts to another publishing company.”
Ransom stopped, he was sure he threw those silly stories away, away so that no one could access them.
“Think it over Ransom, I have no doubt that you’ll make something extraordinary,” Harlan gave him a small smile and dismissed him.
For once in his life, Ransom listened to his grandfather and left the room.
Ransom decided to stay at the estate for a bit but he couldn’t be bothered to make nice with his family, so once outside he took a deep breath and began to think.
Since he was a young boy he had always been obsessed with fiction and mysteries, exactly as his grandfather. As soon as he was old enough he had devoured every book that Harlan had published. And as soon as he was allowed he had helped Harlan with ideas for his books and research. It would be obvious to follow in Harlan Thrombey’s footsteps.
Harlan had been the only one in the family to see his brains and not as a Thrombey-Drysdale brat as the rest of the family, even his mother. He wanted to prove himself, but he didn’t want to be seen as an extension of the famous Harlan Thrombey.
Ransom wasn’t stupid. He knew that the rest of his family would believe that Harlan had a hand in helping Ransom. And he wouldn’t stand for it. Ransom Drysdale has always been and would always be a lone wolf.
No way in hell would Ransom let his estranged family have a word in what he did.
But after several careful revelations he knew, he knew that it would be impossible. There wasn’t anything that Ransom could come up with that would make them believe that he was doing it on his own. His family has always been negative, they had never done or said anything genuine and would always be that way.
Ransom was a Thrombey, but he wanted to be more than that.
Harlan's idea was the only way for Ransom to show that he would be better than them.
“Ransom!”
He quickly turned around and saw the nurse at the door. ´What the hell is she doing there´.
“What? Is my beloved family tired of using you for their political games,” he sarcastically muttered.
“I don’t think they’ll ever be,” came the surprising response. He took a closer look at Marta and unsurprisingly she was very tense, as ´as she should be,´ he thought. Walt, though often meek after a reprimand from Harlan, would always be haughty and stubborn around everyone else, especially to get his opinions out loud and clear.
“For some reason Harlan wanted me to check on you,” she came up beside him and looked out onto the grounds below, the dogs had been let out earlier and were chasing each other around. “He said that you had an argument, but not what you argued about.”
She turned to look at him “What did you do this time?”
Ransom looked at her, sighed and then turned to look back at the dogs, “You’re smarter than you look Cabrera,” he looked back into the house and saw that Walt was arguing once again with Harlan, probably another attempt at getting his works turned into another media. “How much has Harlan told you?”
Marta hummed “Not a lot, I’ve been hearing a lot of gossip about your family from him. Seems that he is planning something big,” she paused for a bit “He also told me about giving you a last chance, but nothing more.”
It would seem she had no idea about her getting the inheritance.
´Maybe I could-no´ he shook his head. Seducing Marta in order to get his inheritance would be a stupid idea. Ransom was an asshole, but that would be out of order even for him. Not to mention Harlan would sniff that plan out from miles away and actually throw him out, once and for all.
“What do you say we play a game of Go, Harlan told me you beat him at it all the time. I’ve always thought I was the only one to beat him at it,” he switched the conversation.
Marta gave him a small smile, “Why not, I’ve always wanted to beat your ass.”
As expected, Marta kicked his ass.
Ransom couldn’t be bothered to get angry, he hadn’t had this much fun in ages. Marta was surprisingly easy to talk with, she even matched his sarcasm to a point. He started to understand why Harlan liked her. If his mother could see him now Ransom was sure she would freak.
“How many times have you lost now Ransom” came a voice from the door.
Harlan had made his way up to his secret room and was now looking at both Ransom and Marta with a fond face.
“I’ve lost count,” Ransom answered in a fake grumpy voice. While most would believe that he actually would get angry at getting beaten in his favourite board game, he was more astounded by the fact that Marta didn’t even play to win.
“Ransom´s almost as bad as you Harlan,” Marta gave a smile.
“I’m not that bad!” said both Harlan and Ransom at the same time, then looked at each other surprised.
Harlan smiled and said “the party is almost over, I wanted some peace and quiet before going to sleep,” then he looked at the Go board, “Maybe one game of Go before I retire for the night,” He looked at them “How about me and Ransom try to win against you Marta, maybe we’ll have the slightest more chance of winning for once.”
Marta looked at them suspiciously, “Alright, why not.”
Some time later Marta looked victoriously upon Ransom and Harlan, “Turns out I’m too smart for you,” Ransom groaned “This doesn’t even make sense, you’re not even playing by the rules,” he pointed at Marta and looked at her critically before saying “There’s no way you’re not cheating!”
“I’m not.”
“Yes you are!”
“You’re just a bad loser.”
Harlan interrupted them “Kids, kids quiet down,” he looked at them fondly for a second. “Ransom we can get revenge another day, maybe we’ll need a plan of attack next time.”
Marta started rising from the floor “You know what that means Harlan.”
He sighed “Yes yes, alright give me my drugs then,” Marta went down to his room to retrieve her medicine bag.
While waiting Harlan turned to Ransom to explain “I’ve agreed with Marta that everytime I lose a game of Go, I’ll agree to take the medicine without complaining,” he said grumpily.
Ransom looked at him “So basically every time you play,” he deadpanned.
“Oh hush you.”
Marta came back with the bag and took out the medicine “come on now, you know how this goes.”
“Yes yes, alright.”
While Marta and Harlan bickered with each other Ransom looked at them, he could definitely understand now why Harlan would give Marta his whole inheritance. Marta was finally the one family member Harlan always wished for.
His mother Linda, while objectively the smartest of the children, had a hard heart that contributed to not only her not so sweet persona but also Ransom's hard upbringing. He didn’t fully blame her, especially since Harlan had made a mistake in having far too big expectations of his children. Linda was undoubtedly the biggest aftermath of that.
While Ransom didn’t have many memories of Neil, many of them were of his sheer passion for nature. Neil definitely took after his father in regards to emotional capacity, although Ransom had a hard time believing that Neil actually fell for Joni. Meg had to have taken after her mother, her look upon life was taken for granted, since like Ransom she has had most things handed to her from a very young age.
Lastly Walt, the obvious youngest of the children, and certainly behaving like one. His disregard to Harlan over his works was laughable, anyone could see that Harlan's works would stay as books and to have them in any other media would make him a laughingstock. If it weren’t for Jacob, Walt could almost be seen as okay. But there was no denying who Jacob’s racism had stemmed from, especially considering the way Walt often talked to Marta and the help, Fran.
If it weren’t for the argument earlier that evening Ransom would surely also walk the same steps as the rest of the Thrombeys. No that wouldn't do, Ransom would make sure of that, he would make his own path, a path similar to Harlans but not the same.
“Say what would happen if you were to accidentally switch the medicine?” Harlan's voice broke him out of his thoughts.
Marta was giving Harlan his last dose for the night, Morphine his sleep medicine. “Well the three milligrams of morphine is normally not a lot for a normal person. But one hundred milligrams of morphine would kill even the biggest man out there,” she answered.
‘Huh’ Ransom thought, the gears began turning in his head ‘That wouldn’t actually be such a bad idea for a book’. He looked at Harlan and saw that Harlan was already staring at him. Once Harlan had his attention he gave Ransom a wink.
‘Oh’
Maybe a path alongside would suffice…yeah that would be better.