“Why don’t you tell her what else you found?” Gibson offered, giving me a chance to change the subject.
“There’s more?”
There was a lot more, but we didn’t have time to cover everything, so I summed it up.
“Your parents left you a sizable sum of money.”
She slowly turned her head towards me, her lids fluttering over her eyes as if they couldn’t focus.
“What?”
“They started a trust fund for you.”
From the looks of it, they’d cleared out their savings and started the fund with over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
My analytical brain estimated the worth.
“We haven’t verified it yet, but that alone will be worth about half a million dollars.”
Nina coughed. When she took a sip of water to soothe her throat, she choked on it.
I’d expected her shock, but not the extent. Had she really not considered that her parents might’ve left her money?
She blinked a few more times before asking, “They left me how much?”
“Between the trust fund, their life insurance, and bank accounts, we estimate they left you close to a million dollars.”
“A million dollars?”
The only evidence that Nina was still alive was the soft rise and fall of her chest.
My hand moved to her arm of its own volition as leaned towards her. The need to comfort her, to touch her, growing with each passing second.
“Nina?”
Her lids danced over her eyes. Her lips parted and closed and parted again. Slower than should have been possible, she turned her face towards me and said, “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Chapter 43
Nina
My parents left me a million dollars. The first thing I thought of was all the help I could hire for Nana Sue.
With that kind of money, I could pay for a decent care facility, but I couldn’t bring myself to risk her being treated poorly while the funds rapidly depleted. At least with a home nurse, I could trust the quality of care, and I’d only have to pay for help when I wasn’t home.
“Nina, breathe,” Austin’s voice cut through the chaos in my head.
I sucked in a deep breath and promptly choked on my spit.
When the coughing subsided, I looked at the paperwork on the table. “Is that what all that is?” I needed to focus on something not money.
“Yes. Like everything else, we’ll make copies. You’ll be able to keep the originals once we’ve processed them.”
“Processed them?”
“Chances are the only prints we’ll find are from your parents, but there might be others, like from the lawyer or banker who processed the paperwork.”
“Why would that matter?”
