Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL (01/23/20)
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TITLE: A Ring of Truth | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
01/29/20 -
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Lawyers had worked hard to annul the marriage of the newlyweds in the weeks following the crash so that he could cut Melissa out of the family fortune. “She won’t get one thin dime.” There was no way she could know the agony of his loss. “She hardly knew my son.” His thirst for comfort left him lonely and reckless in the arms of strangers. And now his rejected daughter-in-law carried the right to his fortune in her womb.
The news continued but slowly, the pieces of a puzzle came together as his mind cleared. “Oh no!” Six months ago, an envelope holding the words of Genesis 38 arrived in his mail. He read the words in a drunken stupor wondering their purpose. “What idiot would send a Bible chapter to a man who has everything?” Abraham’s great-grandson Judah fails to fulfill a promise to his daughter-in-law, Tamar. She disguises herself as a prostitute and seduces him. When her pregnancy is discovered, Judah declares that she is to be burned to death only to have her show his own ring and cord and staff for her paternity test. Judah has no option but to protect and provide for her.
Aaron’s lawyer looked over the passage. “Look at it this way,” he said. “If that girl hadn’t of seduced her father-in-law then Jesus would never have had a lineage. Maybe someone is trying to tell you that all’s well that ends well.” It all seemed sacrilegious. He had shredded the chapter.
Three months ago, another envelope arrived. It carried excerpts from Shakespeare’s play, ‘All’s Well That Ends Well.’ Aaron threw it into the air. “What do I care about a stupid Shakespearean play?” In the play, a low-born woman named Helena is in love with the countess’s son Bertram. He cares nothing for her. Helena cures the king and gains the right to choose her own husband. She chooses Bertram but he rejects her. He says he would only marry her after she has borne his child and worn the family ring. While Bertram is away at war seducing other women, Helena slyly takes the place of one of his conquests and becomes pregnant, gaining the family ring as a pledge. Bertram has no option but to protect and provide for her, ensuring that all would end well.
His lawyer wasn’t smiling this time. “Someone’s out to get you somehow. Are you sure there’s nothing hidden we have to worry about?”
Cold sweats swallowed his pride as he set his glass of whisky down on the table. He glanced at his ring finger. The wedding ring was gone. “Where?” A vague memory of a woman on a dance floor taking him into a dark room. “Would you mind taking off your ring before anything happens?”
He raced to the walk-in closet and checked all his pockets. “Nothing here!” There was no wedding ring in the drawers or in his jewelry box.
The doorbell rang.
A small wrapped box snuggled against the door jamb. He knew.
With shaking hands, he shredded the paper and opened the box. Inside, was a note. “From the baby’s father. Heir to the Bronson fortune.” It was his ring. He dropped it and collapsed.
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Twenty-three years later I finally met my father. The courts had run out of ways to keep me away. My mother had never slandered the man nor had she given me any reason to take an easy road to success. She was a woman of faith who trained me every day in memory and understanding. We attended a strong church where I learned to trust and obey.
When I stood before him, having endured the warnings of lawyers, I had no hate, envy or anger in my heart. He held out a ring from his wheelchair and hugged me. “All’s well that ends well,” he said. “Use it wisely.”
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