Gold Digger Tricks Rich Man into Marrying Her, Karma Does Its Job – Story of the Day

A gold digger convinces a trusting, wealthy older man to marry her, but things don't work out as she had planned.

Laura Gardner hit the jackpot when she met David Laramy. He was wealthy, very wealthy -- wealthy enough to fulfil every last one of Laura's greedy fantasies if she worked him just right.

David was also 25 years older than Laura, and a widower, which meant that she could play for the big prize. She could get him to fall for her, propose, marry her, and then she could take him for every cent he had. Yes, Laura had hit the jackpot, or so she thought...

Laura had met David at a charity event, and someone had pointed him out to her as the organization's 'angel,' the man who was always ready to drop a few million to help orphans and at-risk children.

Laura spent half of the evening watching him before she made her move. He was obviously shy and spoke in a soft voice. He wasn't bad-looking either for an older man. Tall, silvery hair, and a sweet smile.

Not that it mattered, all those millions made him hotter than George Clooney as far as Laura was concerned. Laura asked for another glass of red wine and casually walked in his direction.

She positioned herself carefully then turned, deliberately bumping into him, letting the red wine cascade down her elegant white dress. "Oh!" she gasped, "Oh, I'm so sorry!"

She could see that David was distressed at the accident. "It's my fault," he cried, "I'm so clumsy, I didn't see you..."

"No!" said Laura, smiling up at him, "It was MY fault!" I'm very clumsy...The truth is..." she leaned to whisper, "I don't usually wear high heels! I can't walk in them!"

David stared at Laura, glamorous from head to toe, looking like a movie star. "You can't?"

She smiled shyly up at him. "No!" she gestured down at her dress. "This is my best friend's, the dress, the sparkles, the shoes? She lent them to me so I could wear them to their function. I'm more of a jeans girl!"

David grinned and tugged at his bowtie. "I'll tell you a secret, I'm more of a jeans and T-shirt man myself!" and suddenly they were laughing, alone in the middle of the crowd, and Laura knew she had him.

By the end of the evening, he'd asked her out for dinner, by the end of their first week, he proposed -- and Laura turned him down. "David, you don't know me. I'm not...There are things about my past..."

David shook his head. "I don't care about your past, Laura, I want you in my future." Laura let slow tears trickle down her cheeks and whispered 'yes' with trembling lips. It was all very moving, and very romantic.

David's family was a harder nut to crack. They weren't exactly excited to see David marry a woman nearly half his age after being a confirmed bachelor all his life. David's sister Daphne immediately hired a private detective.

Two weeks later Daphne invited David and Laura to dinner, and with the appetizers, she served up a surprise: the P.I.'s report on Laura's very checkered and shady past. Laura gasped and covered her face with her hands.

"This is why I can't marry you, David!" she sobbed, "I'm not worthy...I told you...The wedding is off!"

David picked up the report and tore it to pieces. "Laura, I haven't read it, and I don't intend to read it. I love you, and you are going to marry me!"

That night David and Laura flew to Las Vegas in his private plane, and the next morning they were married in a romantic little white chapel. As Laura signed the marriage certificate she was smiling.

PERFECT! David's sister had done her a huge favor...Under other circumstances, she'd have had to sign a prenup -- David's lawyers would have insisted, this way all those millions were half hers!

It was all working according to plan! Laura was the perfect wife for David: loving, supportive, and enthusiastic about all his interests. David loved spending time on the family farm in Kentucky, so Laura loved it too.

The quintessential glamour girl, she now wore jeans and swept her hair into a ponytail, and wore almost no lipstick. There were days when she wondered if she was going to be able to keep it up much longer, then she thought about all that money...

David showered Laura with gifts, sweet thoughtful gifts: a new car, a pair of diamond earrings. And Laura always asked him not to be so extravagant, which, of course, led him to be even more extravagant!

So Laura was enjoying herself hugely if only she wasn't living on the farm, eight months out of every year... She couldn't stand the smell of horses, she wanted New York, Los Angeles, and Paris.

Laura promised herself she wouldn't spend a single day in the country again when she was a rich, rich, RICH widow. Two years after their marriage, sooner than she ever expected, Laura got everything she wanted.

David had been out riding when his heart gave out, the doctors explained to her afterward. Laura wept bitterly and picked out a suitable designer dress for the funeral. Something sober, but not too modest.

She looked stunning, she thought, eyeing herself in the mirror. Laura rehearsed a heartbroken sob and smiled. Oh yes, she was perfect! After a sterling performance at the funeral, Laura was ready for the reading of the will.

David's sister, her husband, and their weasel-faced kids sat there looking angrier than grieved and Laura was sure she knew why. The family lawyer, Mr. Merlon took out David's will.

"Two years ago, David changed his will and changed the new beneficiary of the family's trust fund. You, Daphne, know the requirements of the trust, but I don't know if Mrs. Gardner is aware of the conditions?"

Laura looked bewildered. "Conditions?"

"Mrs. Gardner, the trust was set up by David's great-grandfather and comprises of a capital of $600 million. You are now the sole beneficiary of the trust if you accept it."

Laura smiled triumphantly. She'd done it! "Wonderful, Mr. Merlon, of course, I accept! Where do I sign?"

"Right here," Merlon said, "But Mrs. Gardner..." Laura grabbed his pen and quickly started signing the trust agreement, initialing each page as she went along. She wanted no loopholes for Daphne to explore.

Finally, she was finished. She handed Merlon his pen. "There! Now, hand over the money!"

"As I said, Mrs. Gardner, David and Daphne's great-grandfather had very stringent rules binding the beneficiary of the family trust. You can only leave it to a wife or descendent of his, and you only have access to 20% of the money at the age of 50."

"FIFTY?" screamed Laura, "What do you mean, FIFTY!"

"Old Mr. Gardner made his money in his 50s, and he lived on the farm all his life. He loved the land, and he wanted his descendants to love it too. So the trust requires the beneficiary to spend 8 months of the year on the farm..."

"WHAT?" screeched LAura, "For the rest of my life?"

"I'm afraid so, Mrs. Gardner. And until your 50th birthday, you'll have to live on whatever income the farm produces." Merlon said.

"The farm," gasped Laura sobbing, "I'm going to live on that horse farm for the rest of my life?"

Daphne and her family were smiling happily as Merlon went on to announce certain large cash legacies in the order of several million that David had left them while Laura wept.

For the next 20 years, she was going to be sitting on that farm. No beach house in Malibu, no villa in Tuscany, and no money. She was going to have to work that farm, she would be surrounded by manure for the rest of her life.

Someone should have told Laura that getting what you want isn't always what it's cracked up to be...

What can we learn from this story?

1. Greed can make a person act rashly. Laura bound herself to the terms of the trust fund without knowing the restrictions because she was blinded by greed.

2. What you want may not be what you need. We set out hearts on dreams or ambitions, but we don't always realize the consequences of achieving them.

Any resemblance in this story to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a man who left his elderly widowed mother homeless.

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