This doesn’t bode well. Right away, I try to figure out what I’ve done wrong, and why they’re looking at me that way. All I did was sleep. I haven’t even been here long enough to cause trouble.
Finally, it’s Nic who speaks. “We need to talk with you.”
“Okay…” I shoot a desperate glance Lucas’s way, but he’s unreadable.
“You must be hungry. Please come and help yourself.” There’s a plate of bagels and muffins on the table, cream cheese and butter, and other things I barely take a look at.
I’m much more interested in the men sitting there and whatever it is they are going to tell me, even though I’m starved. I force myself to grab a bagel while Nic pours me a cup of coffee. I murmur my thanks, then busy myself spreading cream cheese on both halves. It’s easier than looking at Lucas, whose pained expression is enough to tear my heart out.
“We have good news for you.” Nic offers a tight smile before looking at his brother like this was his cue to jump in. Only Lucas hasn’t said a word. He’s too busy staring into his coffee cup. How good can the news be when he looks so damn miserable?
“I could use some good news,” I offer with a smile I don’t feel.
Lucas clears his throat, and I sit up a little straighter now that I know he’s the one delivering this news. “Over the past few months, Nic and Xander have taken it upon themselves to divvy up the Valentine businesses.”
Oh. This is the last thing I expected to hear about. “That makes sense. There’s nobody to run them otherwise.”
“And anything they didn’t want, they sold off.”
I nod, picking at my bagel. What does any of this have to do with me?
“In the end, there’s a substantial amount of money due to the sale of those businesses.” When I lift an eyebrow, he raises a shoulder. “Millions of dollars.”
“Wow.”
“And it’s yours.”
His timing couldn’t have been worse. A piece of bagel lodges in my throat, and I struggle with it for a second, coughing hard. Lucas pushes a bottle of water my way, and I drink deeply while my brain spins.
Millions. He said millions, didn’t he? And it’s mine.
“I don’t understand,” I choke out. “Why is it mine? Where do I fall in any of this?”
“You’re the last living Valentine. As such, the estate is yours. The money from the businesses, along with the family home.”
My head snaps back. Millions of dollars? That’s theoretical, something so huge I can’t wrap my head around it. But the family home? I’ve been there and walked through the rooms. It’s a real place.
And it’s mine?
“Have you known about this all along?” It’s a question for Lucas, who might be speaking to me but is still holding himself back. Like he’s reading from a prepared speech or something like that.
“I’ve been working on it,” Nic explains. “Lucas knew it had to be done—someone needed to take control of Valentine’s interests. But the behind-the-scenes work was handled without him.”
There’s something heavy in Nic’s voice. I always get the feeling there’s hidden subtext between them, which is unnerving.
Lucas rises from the table, and I follow his progress as he goes to the counter and picks up a manila envelope which he brings back and places in front of me. “There you go. Everything you need to get you started.”
I stare at the envelope before touching it with shaking hands while my brain practically does backflips, trying to process all of this. How many bombshells can a girl take? The envelope is heavy, and I soon find out why once I manage to make my trembling fingers work.
There’s a stack of cash inside, for one thing. I don’t know how much, but I thumb through and see the twenties and fifties. Along with that is a bank card which I pull out. My name is imprinted on it.
One more item sits at the bottom. A key. “That’s the master key to the house,” Nic explains. “As for the bank card, you can set the PIN and login information through the bank’s website. The cash in the envelope is yours and should be enough to cover your expenses for a while.”
“Everything in the house is yours to do with as you wish,” Lucas adds. “You can always sell it or remodel it. Whatever you want.”
I should be overjoyed, right? I know I should. I just had the whole world handed to me. I should be screaming and crying and laughing. All my troubles are gone all at once.
“This is all so much,” I whisper, looking at the money. So much of it, but only a fraction of what I’m supposedly worth. It doesn’t feel real.