I still just sit here, dumbfounded. An heir. My inheritance could be fifty dollars and a bottle-cap collection, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. I’m an heir. I have an inheritance.
I cannot believe what I’m hearing.
I shake my head. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I understand what that means.”
Dane takes a deep breath and explains. “It means that everything that he had is yours now. When he passed away, it all came to you.”
I lower a brow. “What came to me?”
“Your father was quite a successful businessman. You now have all of his estate. All of his assets … and they are quite considerable.”
“Sorry,” I say, taking my turn to cut him off. “Considerable means very different things to different people. What kind of ‘considerable’ are we talking about?”
Leave it to the little greedy street-urchin in me to get right to the money.
Dane nods and slides an itemized list across the top of his desk towards me. “That means that you have his condo on 5th Avenue in New York City. You also have a rather large beach house in the Bahamas, a palatial villa in Italy, and an apartment on the left bank in Paris.” He pushes another paper to me. “And those are just the properties.”
I know that I must be dreaming. I wonder if I’m the one who fell into a coma at the Christmas party and I’m not actually awake and none of this is real.
I blink and decide to run with the madness. I mean, I’m here. Why not.
“So, what are you telling me? Am I a millionaire or something?”
My uncle shakes his head. “Oh no. You’re a billionaire.”
I break out in nervous, uncontrollable, embarrassing, confusing, laughter.
“I’m sorry,” I say, as soon as I’ve gotten my heaving shoulders in check. “I just, it’s too much to believe.”
He leans forward, closer to me, though there’s still a desk between us. “But you must. Your Aunt Ellen and I have lost … a lot, in the last year. Between Sadie and now Paul,” here, he has to pause, “our family has grown considerably smaller.”
That sobers me up.
“We’d like you to become a part of our lives, Teddy,” Dane says. “You need to learn about this family and how you fit into it. You’ll have a prominent place in society, if you want it. There’s a lot for us to go over, and to teach you. Your whole life has just changed, but you’re not going into this new world alone. Your aunt and I will be there at your side to guide you through it.”
I’m completely amazed. “This is the first time in my life that I’m not going to be alone.”
That seems so foreign to me. It’s like I’m not even on the planet or in my own life anymore.
Dane frowns slightly. “Who are your friends at school? Who are you socializing with?”
“Mostly I’m around my best friend Dana Rutherford, and my boyfriends Wills Stryker and Blair Rashnikov.” I draw in a deep breath, I guess there’s only so long before they found out.
He lifts a brow. “You have two boyfriends?”
I nod.
He makes an odd face. “And that’s not going to change?”
I shake my head. “Not a chance.”
He smiles a little at my response, and I wonder if there’s more to Dane than meets the eye. “I suppose I should probably tell you then that Wills’ father is on the board of one of your companies. So technically, he works for you now.”
I can’t help but smile a little bit too. “Okay.” I’m not sure what that means for Wills’ family, but it’s kind of funny.
“There’s something else,” Dane says evenly.
“There’s more?” I don’t know what else there could possibly be. Part of me thinks this is where everything turns out to be just another cruel, elaborate joke.