The Widow Quotes

“Then what, please, did Harry like? “I see. Do you have other investments?” She took a deep breath and suddenly looked worried. “I can trust you, right, Mr. Latch?” “Of course. I’m your lawyer, duty bound to keep everything confidential.” Simon noticed a slight flutter in his intestines, as if some truly wonderful and unexpected facts might be in the works. He’d had a few surprises in the past eighteen years as a pseudo estate lawyer, but nothing significant. “Well, you see Mr. Latch—” “Please call me Simon.” “Simon, what a nice name. You see, Simon, Harry worked for almost forty years as a district sales rep for Coca-Cola. I think that’s what killed him. He got his blood sugar up, had a stroke at sixty-nine, never recovered. We always had plenty of Coke, the real thing, not diet, in the fridge and he drank too many, at least in my opinion. Anyway, he qualified for stock options, a few at a time, and he bought every share of Coke he could get his hands on. Never sold a share, just enjoyed watching it pile up. And boy did it. Then about thirty years ago, he began selling Coke products to Wal-Mart and became fascinated with the company. It”
― John Grisham, The Widow

“prescient”
― John Grisham, The Widow

“Virginia”
― John Grisham, The Widow

“I did. I told you I would.”
― John Grisham, The Widow

“Unlike Wally, the greedy little bastard, Simon would not be getting a direct payment of cash upon Eleanor’s death. In the depths of the densest and most convoluted paragraph of that will, Wally included an outright gift of $485,000 to himself. A magnifying glass was needed to find the language. The payment was for “accrued services,” a vague and unique category of testamentary gifts that, not surprisingly, went undefined. It was absurd to think that”
― John Grisham, The Widow

“As executor of the will, and sole director of the trust, as well as the attorney for the estate, he would be in complete control. His fees would be substantial.”
― John Grisham, The Widow

“Moving beyond the hefty fees to come, the worst part was the power granted unto the trustee. In half a page of thick legalese, Wally gave himself the right to do virtually everything and anything with the trust. He could donate to “appropriate” charities and nonprofits, make loans to virtually anyone, hire consultants, appraisers, accountants, and tax experts to help “protect” the trust. After ten years of such shenanigans, he could, in the event any of the money was left, disburse it at his discretion and close the trust.”
― John Grisham, The Widow

“First things first. He had to see the will to verify that his dear Netty was telling the truth. It was still hard to believe that a lawyer, any lawyer, would be brazen enough to insert himself in a will and have unfettered access to an entire fortune. But the fact that he, the Honorable Simon Latch, was thinking of doing something very similar to that made him realize it was indeed possible. Upon Netty’s death, there would certainly be a massive legal brawl with lawsuits flying, but the only named trustee, at the moment one Wally Thackerman, would be in the driver’s seat.”
― John Grisham, The Widow

“friends?”
― John Grisham, The Widow

“Travis McGee novels, slick new”
― John Grisham, The Widow

“stock?” “He left it to me, along with everything else. What’s it called—‘the marital deduction’?” “Yes, that’s it. You can leave everything to your spouse free of estate taxes. Harry must have been a smart man.” “Funny thing, he never claimed to be smart. He was quite modest, worked hard, paid his debts, saved his money, bought his stocks, then left it all to me. He wanted to do something to help his sons, and, frankly, he tried everything. But if they had known about his portfolio they would have driven him crazy. So, he never told them. Then he died suddenly.”
― John Grisham, The Widow

“interruption.”
― John Grisham, The Widow