Jewel Ascending Ch. 01

For the past three weeks she had been reviewing and studying and receiving briefs from her late husband's financial advisors as to the state of the Delacroix Family finances...now, her finances.

She had never imagined the true extent of her husband's wealth. As she sat overlooking the garden she remembered her shopping sprees she made, both on line and in real life as she sought to spend as much of his wealth as she could to hurt or annoy him.

Discovering that a forty thousand dollar shopping trip was nothing to him was quite a shock. Discovering that he had a budget of one million dollars just for her annual upkeep was another. And discovering that she had never even exceeded half that at any time during their marriage was...frustrating...and humbling!

Over the course of the week she had been awed to learn that her husband was a multi-billionaire, and in fact was on track to join the rarified stratum of the nine other known trillionaires in the world today.

Almost 100 billion in cash or cash equivalents.

Nearly 650 billion in stocks, bonds, and commodities.

And another 200 billion in "other" investments.

Jewel's mind struggled to comprehend the enormity of the wealth she now controlled.

As an arranged marriage male bride she should have been under an older law and custom that only gave her "access" to use 1/3 of the money for her upkeep. Upon her death that money would normally revert to the estate and her husband's heirs.

But because her stepson, Jean Delacroix V died in the same accident that caused her husbands and he now had no other male heirs, all the money was legally hers and under her control. Not even his daughter, Lillian could make a claim as she had married and was part of her new husband's family now.

She was what was called a "Woman of Independent Means". And she would remain so for the rest of her life.

As long as she remained a widow and continued to live as a woman.

The terms and conditions of her dead husband's will were clear and ironclad. As long as she continued to present as a woman she would keep everything. If she wanted to return to being a man, she would have to give up all of it. The house, the money, the title...

Jewel felt slightly hypocritical about all this. Despite being conflicted over her choice of freedom as her former self and freedom as a wealthy widow she truly believed and felt that after all the suffering and all the indignities forced upon her that she deserved the financial rewards that came from surviving her enslavement.

Jewel finished her tea and treats and strode away from the patio to begin a short walking tour of the gardens...her gardens.

As she walked past the beautiful scenery she admired the flowering beauty her gardens provided. The staff was doing excellent work. She was considering giving them a bonus; something her husband had never done.

As she strolled past the entrance to the grotto she once again considered destroying it. Instead, she sighed and decided not to. It was unique, historic, and it was not like she would ever be raped in there again by her husband. Destroying it was unnecessary. Besides, it was still a nice sauna and hot tub for soaking in after a stressful day.

Jewel followed the garden path and arrived at the small reservoir that provided irrigation water to her gardens. She glanced over to the overflow outflow grate that was now padlocked and alarmed. She fondly recalled her failed escape attempt through the drainage pipe that ended down at the shore line below the cliff. Her near-terror at descending the pipe to flee her enslavement and instead remembered it fondly as her most frightening nearly successful escape attempt of her marriage.

She completed her tour and circuit of her gardens and arrived back at the patio. The staff had already cleared the tea service away. She reentered her husband's library and study to...no...HER library and study and returned to her inspection of her finances.

**

Jewel decided to hire a Head of Household to free up more time. She didn't like being almost overwhelmed with overseeing all her household duties as well as taking over her husband's business and investment interests.

She again decided to hire 'in house'. She promoted the senior most domestic maid. Gabriel, a woman about 40 years of age with 20 years service to her husband.

She also made one more change. She promoted Melinda, her female bodyguard to be her chief of security. Jewel felt more comfortable with Melinda. While it was true that Melinda would usually have been the one to secure Jewel's restraints when travelling, or to 'accompany' her wherever she had been directed to go, Jewel wanted to keep her close.

Jewel felt more comfortable around women than men and her hiring reflected her disposition.

Count Delacroix had filed all the appropriate legal notices and declarations to make Jewel his arranged marriage male bride, yet although legally he was a male bride he was legally required to present as female and use female pronouns and honorifics.

Jewel's lawyers had finally received one more disturbing piece of news. The count, in his last year before his death had also had the court amend her birth certificate so that she was officially female.

Jewel didn't know why yet and her lawyers were still researching that problem. How was that even possible? She still had her penis and testicles.

But since she was legally female and required to present as female she knew that for appearances sake having a female bodyguard and a female head of household was the appropriate thing to do.