He looked nothing like the frazzled man who had read the will just forty-eight hours ago. He was wearing a sharp tuxedo, and his face held a grim sort of satisfaction.
“Get in, Eliana,” he said softly. “We have a lot to discuss.”
Confused and shivering in the morning chill, I climbed into the warmth of the car. The leather seats smelled new, and there was a glass of sparkling water waiting for me.
“Mr. Sterling?” I stammered, clutching my single bag of clothes. “I don’t understand. You said there was no money. You said Dina got everything.”
“I said the liquid assets were depleted by your mother’s medical bills,” he corrected, a twinkle in his eye. “And I read the Public Will. That is the document your parents prepared for the world—and specifically for your Aunt Dina—to see. But your father knew his sister better than anyone. He suspected that without the promise of money, her true colors would show.”
He handed me a thick envelope.
“Your parents set up a contingency clause,” Sterling explained. “It was a test of character. The terms were simple: If Dina took you in and cared for you despite there being ‘no money,’ the family trust—worth roughly five million dollars—would be unlocked and split evenly between the two of you.”
My jaw dropped. “Five million?”
“However,” Sterling continued, his voice hardening, “there was a second clause. If Dina abandoned you, evicted you, or caused you harm within thirty days of the funeral, she would forfeit her claim to the trust entirely.”
“So…” I whispered, the realization washing over me.
“So, by kicking you out after only two days, she failed the test spectacularly,” Sterling smiled. “The trust is now 100% yours. And as for the house…”
“She still owns it, doesn’t she?” I asked.
“She does,” Sterling nodded. “But she also inherited the three years of unpaid property taxes and the massive structural repair liens your father took out against the property to pay for your mother’s experimental medication. The house is a money pit, Eliana. Without the trust fund to maintain it, she will likely be bankrupt within six months.”
I sat back, tears streaming down my face—not of sadness, but of relief. My parents had been looking out for me from beyond the grave. They knew I couldn’t survive living with a woman who hated me, so they ensured I wouldn’t have to.
“Where would you like to go?” Sterling asked. “The estate has a penthouse in the city that is currently vacant and fully furnished.”
“Take me there,” I said. “But first… can we drive by the house one last time?”
Sterling nodded to the driver.
We looped around the block. As the sleek black limo crawled past the driveway, I saw Dina on the porch. She was in her bathrobe, holding a coffee cup, looking smugly at the empty spot on the sidewalk where she thought I’d be begging.
I rolled down the tinted window just as she looked up. Her eyes went wide. She saw me sitting in luxury, holding the envelope, with the most powerful lawyer in the city beside me.
She dropped her coffee mug. It shattered on the concrete.
She began to run toward the car, shouting, waving her arms frantically, realizing she had made a mistake, though she didn’t yet know just how expensive that mistake was.
“Keep driving,” I told the driver.
I rolled the window up, shutting out her screams. I didn’t hate her. I didn’t need to. She had created her own prison, and I had just been given the key to my freedom.
My life was just beginning.
