Your Castle, My Keys

When the Sherman family’s wealth passed down to my mother’s generation, she was the only daughter left.

My grandfather, Hugo Sherman, was overjoyed when I was born. He threw a three-day party for everyone to join.

The very next day, he gathered the family elders at the main estate and put the family’s golden seal in my name.

Unfortunately, I did not inherit any of the Sherman family’s talent for accounting.

When I was six, Hugo tried to teach me to read accounts on a ledger.

I had stared at that page full of numbers for a solid hour. In the end, I just played with the counting board.

He had been so frustrated when he saw that.

The next day, he picked a distant relative from a side branch of the family. It was my cousin, Simon Evan.

He was three years older than me and sharp as a tack.

I would cry just trying to memorize a single page of accounts. He could read something once and have it memorized.

By twelve, he was shadowing the head accountant down to the docks to inspect shipments. By fifteen, he could straighten out the bad debts of two stores all on his own.

I was thrilled.

From then on, whenever I wanted a treat, he kept the books for me. Whenever I wanted to see a show, he held a meeting with the accountants for me.

Even when Hugo scolded me for being lazy, I just ducked behind Simon.

Eventually, Hugo laid down a rule.

The head of the family business served one-year terms. It expired every New Year’s Eve.

On New Year’s Day, the head of the family would seal the document again to reinstate him.

Back then, Simon was still young. Hugo had just smiled and patted his shoulder.

“Just go through the motions with Clarisse every New Year. As long as she’s happy, that’s all that matters.”

So, for twelve years, Simon came to me with the ledgers every year.

Usually, before I could even finish reading one, I would be so sleepy that I slumped over the table.

“Didn’t we do just fine last year?”

I yawned and stamped the golden seal.

Simon would always laugh helplessly and ask, “You don’t even know how much we made, and you’re just going to seal it?”

I stated my reply as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. At the same time, I casually pushed a snack into my mouth.

“Isn’t that what you’re here for?”

Over time, everyone outside knew Simon as the head of the family business.

The managers of the thirteen family banks treated him with the utmost respect. Whenever anything went wrong at any of the seventy-two shops, they all reported to him first.

I found the arrangement to be perfect.

That changed last spring, when Simon said he wanted to marry Grace Truman.

The Trumans did not think much of him. To them, he was just a distant relative who worked for the Sherman family. They would not accept him for the longest of times.

For the first time ever, Simon came begging to me.

I had been eating dessert at that time.

After hearing him out, I asked him, “Do you really like her?”

He nodded.

The very next day, I had eighty-eight chests of wedding gifts carried to the Truman residence.

They instantly changed their outlook on Simon.

To help Grace marry in style, I picked three of the most profitable cosmetics shops under my name and gave them as a special present. When she learned about it, she treated me even better.

When she accompanied me to the fair, she picked out jewelry for me. She even personally delivered a cake from the east side of town the very next day after I mentioned it in passing.

Before her wedding, she held my hand and said with a smile, “Clarisse, once Simon gets busy, you’ll have me to keep you company. We’re a family now.”

I was over the moon.

On her wedding day, I picked a box of pearls from my mother’s private collection and gave them to her.

The next day, I brought a gold hair ornament to the newlyweds’ room to see her.

Simon had gone to the main office. Only Grace was in the room.

She smiled as usual as she pulled me into the back courtyard.

“Clarisse, you didn’t actually think I was nice to you because I liked you, did you?”