MrBallen

So Monaco is a country located on the Mediterranean coast and it's surrounded on three sides by France.

And so Monaco and France share a lot of cultural similarities.

But unlike France, Monaco is very, very small, just under a mile wide, and has only about 39,000 citizens.

And many of those 39,000 citizens are incredibly wealthy.

It's essentially a country of millionaires and billionaires living in ultra-luxury condos and high-rises all along its coastline.

And Helene and her family, the Pastors, owned most of those condos.

which meant they were among the wealthiest landlords, not just in Monaco, but on the whole planet.

The Pasteur's multi-billion dollar real estate empire had started three generations ago and Helene was now in charge of it.

It was a lot of work and Helene could have passed it off to somebody else,

But she was a pastore and pastores worked for what they had, which was why, you know, despite her wealth, Helene was a very hands-on landlord and spent long days in her office with her staff, you know, dealing with accounting and handling tenants' requests and complaints like about, you know, the plumber not being on time.

Now, Helene picked up the phone once more to make one more call before she left for the day.

And this call was to her daughter, Sylvia.

Sylvia was 53 and had been diagnosed with breast cancer two years earlier.

So Helene, you know, naturally worried about her a lot and checked in with her daily.

And on this day, when she heard her daughter pick up and say hello, Helene immediately asked her, like, how are you feeling?

but Sylvia said she actually couldn't talk right now.

Her massage therapist had just arrived, and so she excused herself and hung up.

Helene took the phone off her ear and just stared at the receiver as the dial tone blared through it, doing her best not to feel hurt.

Helene knew she was a very demanding parent and generally was not particularly warm,

But she loved Silvia.