Man Bequeaths Only Old Violin Case to Granddaughter, She Nags until it Suddenly Opens – Story of the Day

Cathy insults her dead Grandpa for leaving her only an old violin case and breaks it. She finds a crumpled note inside, warning her not to sell the instrument with a dark past and that she could land in trouble if she did. However, Cathy's desire for money drives her to take the risk.

20-year-old Cathy and her mother, Susan, anxiously sat on the edge of the seats in the notary's office. They had come to receive the inheritance left behind by Cathy's late grandfather, Mr. Martin.

"To Susan and Cathy," the notary began reading the will. "Mr. Martin bequeaths his only possession, AN OLD VIOLIN, to you!"

A moment of stunned silence filled the room as Cathy and Susan turned pale...

"Only that??" Cathy and Susan chorused in shock.

They had come expecting something big in their inheritance, hoping it would bring some relief from all their financial worries. But reality hit them like a bag of bricks when the notary presented a copy of the will for their reference.

"What about everything else he had? The house...car. Bank balance?" Susan asked the notary.

"I'm afraid Mr. Martin's past caught up with him," he coldly replied. "He had huge debts due to illegal activities and fraud. The state seized all his assets. And this violin is all that's left."

Although Susan was disappointed with her late father for leaving them with nothing but an old violin, she feigned politeness and picked it up. But Cathy…she was terribly mad.

"Mom, you can't be serious! Throw this thing away!" Cathy fumed on their way home.

"What made Grandpa think we would want this piece of junk? I already have a violin...I don't want this goddamn trash that belongs in the dumpster!"

The very sight of the weathered violin case enraged Cathy. Upon reaching home, Susan nudged her to take the violin case to her room, which angered her even more.

"I don't need this piece of SH—!" Cathy scoffed as she angrily flung the violin case onto her bedroom floor.

CLICK! The weathered wooden case leaped open as Cathy's eyes widened in disbelief. Then she saw what looked like an expensive instrument inside.

"Wow!" she gasped as she leaned closer.

It was strange. Cathy had never seen her Grandpa play this instrument. Not even once! He was the one who taught her to play the violin when she was little. But not once did he show this gem to her, which puzzled Cathy further.

As Cathy opened the case fully and picked up the violin, a strange note popped out from between the strings. With growing disbelief, she began reading:

"Dear Cathy,

I hope this violin will lighten up the melody of your life and make you an esteemed musician someday.

But my dear, I want to confess to a truth that's been weighing on my heart. This violin was stolen several decades ago.

So no matter what happens, do not sell it, or you might land in big trouble.

With love, Grandpa."

"A stolen violin?" Cathy annoyingly muttered. "You left me only one goddamn thing...and now, you're telling me you stole it. Wow!"

Cathy threw the crumpled note aside, and as she stared at the violin, a strange thought struck her. She decided to go against her grandfather's warning and cash in on her inheritance.

Without wasting time, Cathy clicked a picture of the violin, and then, a simple search online using the image search feature yielded an unbelievable result.

"WHAT? No way! This thing is worth...$100,000??" Cathy gasped.

Temptation gripped her as she grabbed the violin case and hurried to the nearest antique shop to sell it.

Clenching the violin tightly, Cathy arrived outside the antique store at the end of the street. The sign above the entrance read "Russell's Antiques Corner" in faded gold and silver letters.

Sighing deeply, Cathy pushed the door and entered the store.

"Hello there, young lady!" Mr. Russell, the antique dealer, greeted Cathy. "What brings you to my humble shop today, Miss?"

"I have something I'd like to sell," Cathy told him. "I already have one at home...this is kinda old and not my kind. So I want to sell it for a good deal."

Mr. Russell's gaze drifted to the old violin case Cathy carried. "Let's have a look at it, shall we?" he said.

Cathy unlatched the violin case on the glass table, revealing the classic instrument inside.

"Hmmm..." Mr. Russell finally spoke after closely examining the violin. "I'll give you $10,000 for it!"

Cathy was quite taken aback. "What? No way! Do I look like a fool to sell this violin for a scanty $10,000?" she laughed incredulously.

"Well, if you were not a 'FOOL,' then you would've probably known this is a STOLEN violin. And no one will risk taking it!"

Cathy's heart skipped a beat. She thought nobody knew about the violin's dark secret other than her and her dead Grandpa.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she frowned. "It's my Grandpa's violin."

"Oh, really?" the antiquarian raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so, kid...especially with the history this violin carries."

Cathy's hands trembled as she clutched the violin case tighter. "What history?" she asked Mr. Russell.

"This is no ordinary violin," he replied. "It's a rare Stradivarius! This violin is from a series of one-of-a-kind makes from the early 1800s."

"...and the engravings on the side tell me this is the same piece that was reported stolen several decades ago."

By now, Cathy had started to panic. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about. I got to go," she told Mr. Russell as she turned around to leave with the violin. But the man's gruff voice stopped her in her tracks.

"$15,000!" he said. "...and the deal stays between us."

But when Cathy refused the offer and kept walking away, he threatened her.

"You have two days to think...if you don't come back to me with this violin, I'll report you to the police. And you'll explain to them where you got it from."

An unsettling feeling crawled inside Cathy as she hurried out of the antique shop and headed home. Sitting in her room, Cathy knew she had to sell the violin for its real worth as soon as possible.

The option of visiting another antique dealer in town was ruled out. Cathy feared she would be questioned and threatened again.

So she opened her laptop and anonymously logged into an online auction site. Cathy snapped pictures of the violin from different angles and listed it for sale online.

In split seconds, the violin was out into the vast virtual world of potential buyers with a craze for antique items.

An hour later, a notification popped, illuminating Cathy's laptop screen with a mind-blowing deal from a neighboring state.

"New Offer Received - $500,000."

Cathy was overwhelmed with shock. "This is it!" she exclaimed. "This is my ticket to a better life. Mom and I can move to Europe...rent a nice place. And live happily for the rest of our lives!"

But Cathy's joy came crashing down when the antique dealer's threat rushed into her head. The way he threatened her, that insulting tone...it was all too menacing. Cathy knew she couldn't ignore Mr. Russell's threats and needed to figure out how to deal with him first.

"Mr. Russell doesn't know who he's messing with," a wicked glint glowed in Cathy's eyes.

She jumped out of bed and approached the garage to fetch two gasoline cans. Loading the cans into her car trunk, Cathy hopped onto the driver's seat and drove to the antiquarian's house.

Upon arriving at the street where Mr. Russell lived, Cathy parked her car several blocks away from his house, which was just above his shop.

She waited for several minutes until the lights in his bedroom went off.

Convinced he had gone to bed, Cathy quietly slipped out of her car and approached Mr. Russell's house with the gasoline cans in her grip.

Within ten minutes, she doused the perimeter of the antiquarian's house with gasoline and pulled out a lighter from her sweatshirt pocket.

Cathy's hands trembled. She wanted to give up at some point because her conscience started grounding her. But the petrol-like odor, coupled with Mr. Russell's threats, gnawed at her, fueling her desire to get rid of him.

Exhaling a deep breath, Cathy pressed her thumb on the lighter's flint wheel, and the flame popped up.

"Bother me now, Mr. Russell!" she wickedly grinned, tossing the glowing lighter toward the trail of gasoline.

Cathy bolted to her car and drove away as fast as she could. In the rearview mirror, she saw orange and red flames crackle, climbing all the way up to the antiquarian's house.

"Goodbye, Mr. Russell!" Cathy chuckled as she disappeared into the night.

The following morning, Cathy started packing her backpack, which worried her mother. "Sweetheart, where are you going?" Susan asked.

"It's a surprise, Mom!" Cathy replied. "I've got an opportunity to turn our lives around!"

However, Susan was still unnerved. Cathy had lost her father when she was five, and from that day, Susan had gone above and beyond to raise her daughter alone. Although Cathy was twenty, she was still a child to Susan, and her motherly instincts told her something terrible was about to happen.

"Cathy, please tell me what's going on?" Susan turned to Cathy.

"Well, Mom...turns out this old violin is worth a fortune...I'll explain everything later."

As Susan desperately watched, Cathy then hurried out of the house and disappeared out of their gate in her car with the violin case strapped to the seat beside hers.

Several hours later, Cathy finally arrived at her destination in the neighboring state, hundreds of miles away from her hometown.

She stopped her car and observed the landscape around her. It didn't look promising...or safe. There was an old warehouse-like building in near sight. It clearly did not seem like the perfect spot to do business this big.

However, Cathy mustered her courage when she saw a man in a black suit waving at her from a distance. He was holding a brown briefcase and standing before a black SUV.

Cathy's heart pounded as she realized he was the buyer. Flashing her best smile, she stepped out of the car, clutching the violin case tightly.

"Miss Cathy? The violinist from Oakville?" The man approached Cathy. "Ralph...we spoke on the call this morning."

"Nice to see you, Ralph," Cathy got straight to the deal. "Can I see the money first?"

"Not so soon!" Ralph chuckled. "Show me what you've got in there!"

"Oh, alright!" Cathy nervously replied. She placed the violin case on the car's bonnet and opened it.

"WOW! That's quite a rare and expensive violin...where did you get it from?" Ralph asked Cathy.

"It's a family heirloom. My Grandpa's! Can I now see the money, please?"

But it was Cathy's worst nightmare when the unimaginable happened. Ralph pulled out his walkie-talkie and alerted someone.

"We've got her. Take charge!"

"Wha-what's going on?" Cathy panicked and tried to flee with the violin.

"Oh, no, you don't. Put your hands behind your back, Miss," Ralph declared as he handcuffed her.

Only then did Cathy understand that Ralph, whose real name was Officer Daniels, was a cop with an undercover mission.

"Please, officer, I didn't do anything. It's my grandfather's violin," Cathy cried. "He left it to us in his will."

"We'll sort that out later in the station," Officer Daniels gave an unyielding reply as he and his fellow female cops hopped into the cruiser and drove to the police station.

In the interrogation room, Cathy explained the desperate situation that forced her to sell the violin. However, through all of the detective's questions, she never let it slip that she knew the violin was stolen.

"Suspect claims she didn't know her grandfather had stolen the violin...." the detective told Officer Daniels. Suddenly, the officer's phone rang.

"You faxed the person's photo? Alright, I'll check it immediately," Officer Daniels said as a fellow officer hurried to him with a faxed photo of someone.

The cop's gaze shifted to Cathy, who was nervously sitting in the interrogation room.

"Miss Cathy, we've gathered evidence that links you to the arson and attempted murder of Mr. Russell, the antique dealer, last evening," the cop told Cathy.

"What? No...no. That's not true. I had nothing to do with that!" Cathy was alarmed.

"Well, we have eyewitnesses who saw you near the scene...and the CCTVs caught your car fleeing the street after the incident. You'll remain in custody for further investigation."

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