Crossword Genius

Shortly an heir may receive nothing! (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

soon

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'shortly' is the definition.
(I know that shortly can be written as soon)

'an heir may receive nothing' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'nothing' could be 'o' (looks like zero - 0) and 'o' is present in the answer.
'heir' could be 'son' (I've seen this before) and 'son' is found within the leftover letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for soon that I've seen before include "Before long" , "In a little while" , "Before you can say Jack Robinson" , "in a minute" , "Early, in a short time" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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