Page 59 of Slayer

“Ten grand a month! I don’t need that much.”

He didn’t look up. “Okay, I’ll make it five. Also, right now, Emilie Blake is getting twenty thousand a month from the trust. Do you want to keep that going?”

Emilie Blake? “I don’t know who that is.”

He scrolled, frowning. “This goes back nearly two decades. She’s receiving dividends from the trust.”

Two decades. Since before my mom died.

“Do you know who set it up originally?”

“It would have had to be Molly. This was after her father died. Her executor isn’t authorized to spend the money.”

Emilie Blake.

“Do you have contact info for her?” I wondered. Maybe it was a close friend she was helping out.

“No, but the branch address is out of Spokane, Washington. Do you want me to write that down?”

Spokane. A chill crept up my arms, and I nodded.

Another thread in the tangled story of my mother.

If Molly had set it up, I didn’t want to stop the payments. But giving a stranger twenty thousand a month for two decades felt like something I needed to understand…fast.

I thought about it for a second. If my mom did want me to keep paying this person, she would have mentioned it in her letter, right?

“You know what? Let’s stop it. See if anyone reaches out about it?” I asked him.

He nodded, clicking away at some buttons before there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” he called.

His assistant, who’d been at the front desk before, entered the room carrying a small shopping bag and set it on the counter.

“Thank you, Jaqueline,” Steven told her.

“You’re welcome, sir.”

She left the room, and I craned my neck to peek in the red shopping bag. My eyes widened.

It was a smaller stack than I expected, sitting compactly inside of a fat envelope.

“In the bag you will find your ten thousand cash, plus two bank cards. One is for the mortal realm. One is for Veil Haven Bank.”

“Thanks.” I grasped the bag, shocked that this was actually happening. I never thought I’d be holding ten grand.

“Can I help you with anything else today, Stella?” He peered up at me with a kind smile.

I nodded. “Yeah, can you donate fifty percent of my money to Angel House? They are a charity that builds orphanages in India and Africa.”

I’d read about them once in the Spokane Spokesman-Review and dreamed about one day being able to build an orphanage for a bunch of kids who had no place to call home.

Steven sat very still for a moment. Then he laughed. When I said nothing and didn’t return his laughter, he sobered.

“Stella, that would be over five million dollars.”

I nodded. “You know what? Let’s do seventy percent.” I could think of nothing worse than being an orphan and homeless. At least this would give these kids a warm bed and a roof over their heads if they didn’t have a mother to hug them good night.