Page 29 of Slayer

“Kitty Sinclair just left town for a few days. I think she got word I was going to subpoena her DNA. We have twenty hours left before we legally lose your right to the inheritance.”

Oh, was that all? I shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t care about any inheritance. I’ve never had money, so I don’t know what I’m missing.”

Celia sighed, giving me a small smile. “You can give the money away if you want, Stella. It’s not really about that. It’s about keeping Kitty from getting what Molly intended for you. I will die before I let someone who hated her spend her money. It’s about the damn principle of the matter!”

Hated her? The thought of a mother hating her own child made me sick.

“Okay, Mom, chill.” Harper widened her eyes.

“Sorry.” Celia straightened. “Molly was my best friend, and I’m not letting anyone take what belongs to Stella.”

“If she even intended for it to belong to me. We don’t know that she was my birth mom,” I reminded her.

Celia and Harper shared a look.

“What?” I asked.

Celia left the room and returned with a framed photo clutched between her fingers.

“We were about your age here. We’d just graduated and were entering Nightguard as roommates.”

She handed me the photo in a gilded frame, and the breath knocked from my lungs. I staggered backward until I was sitting on the bed. It was like looking at myself and a younger Celia. Their arms were wrapped around each other in a side hug, and both girls were grinning hugely with the Nightguard Academy sign behind them. Celia had a cut under her eye, and Molly was wearing the same leather jacket I wore now. Her eyes, her nose, her chin, her hair. It was me.

“This is…” I had no words. I placed the photo on the bed and tried to swallow the lump in my throat. Tears burned the backs of my eyelids, but I blinked them back. I didn’t want Harper and Celia to see me cry.

Did I have a mom? Was this my mom?

Celia knelt before me, smiling. “Your mom was the sweetest, smartest, most badass woman I’d ever met. Oh, and she was hilarious. Made me laugh so hard I peed once.”

“Mom, gross.” Harper cringed.

“I don’t care,” her mom shot back. “I loved her like my own flesh-and-blood sister, and I know how important it would be to her that you get this inheritance.”

I swallowed hard, trying to process it all. “Wouldn’t Kitty get it when Molly died?”

I didn’t know much about inheritances, but if Molly had been gone for my entire life, wouldn’t the money just revert back to her mom?

Celia grinned. “When Molly was fourteen, her father died. He left everything to Molly, cutting Kitty out of the will. Kitty was furious, but there was nothing she could do about it. Unfortunately, Molly died too young to make a will of her own, so it’s still got her father’s stipulation.”

I leaned forward, taking in every word.

“If in the event Molly passed away, an heir-grandchild must present themselves to claim the inheritance within eighteen years, and if they can’t, only then does it go to Kitty. Molly was legally declared dead eighteen years ago. It’s yours. Give it away if you want, but don’t let Kitty have it. She abused Molly. I don’t want to go into detail, but trust me. She’s the devil incarnate.”

Abused her? You didn’t often hear about mothers abusing their children. It was usually the fathers. I felt a sudden responsibility to get this money just for the sheer fact that it would be my mother’s wish. Assuming Molly was my mom.

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” I told her. “What do we do?”

She stood, began to pace the carpet, and then gave me a serious look. “I know we don’t know each other well yet but.…” She exhaled like she was preparing me for bad news. “I’m going to have to ask you to sign some papers that formally request the exhuming of Molly’s dad’s body since we don’t have Molly’s remains.”

“Mom!” Harper shrieked as I winced.

Exhume. Didn’t that mean…

“You want to dig up her dead grandpa?” Harper said what I was thinking, her face twisted in shock.

“Yes. Kitty left town, and all the Sinclair DNA is on lockdown in the computers, which will take Kitty to unlock. This is the only way, and if I file papers before the office closes today, then it’s all official, and I can present the results at Stella’s heir hearing tomorrow.”

“Eww, you’re not going to…do the digging, right?” Harper looked horrified.