CHAPTER 38
ADELINE
Iwas sitting at my kitchen counter three days after getting home from Wisconsin, staring at the enrollment statement from Ellison Academy and wondering whether it was too late to un-quit my job.Surely, that has to be a thing.
People probably stormed out of workplaces all the time and came back after, and I hadn’t even stormed out. I’d just told them that I was resigning to focus on a few projects of my own while I found my feet after the divorce.
Maybe I could send an email.Hi, sorry about that little emotional speech I gave. I would actually love my job back.
The only other option to pay for the frightfully expensive private school I so badly wanted to send the girls to was to pivot entirely.Maybe I could become an influencer.
People seemed to make excellent money online for doing things like organizing pantries and reviewing lip gloss. I could do that.
Single Mom in Shambles.That could be my brand.I could make a killing.
“Hi, Mommy.” I looked up to see the girls walking into the condo with Amber. She’d taken them to the park after theirmorning of schoolwork, but the sunshine and fresh air didn’t seem to have helped cheer them up.
Jennifer’s shoulders were still slumped, a dark rain cloud hovering over her like it had every second for the last few days. Lu looked offended by the mere fact of her own existence. She’d been back to her old, grumpy self since the moment we’d gotten home.
Amber caught my eye and subtly tilted her head toward the hallway. I followed her a few steps away while the girls kicked off their shoes, their expressions so glum, they could easily have been mistaken for doomed prisoners.
“They’re still having a hard time,” Amber said quietly when she turned to face me in the hall. “Jennifer cried because another kid had a dog that looked like Bear and Lu raced a nine-year-old on his bike, then called him weak when she won.”
I nodded. Lu hadnottaken leaving Wisconsin well and neither had I, if I was being honest. Even Jennifer, who had the most incredible ability to find the silver lining in the darkest of times, was having trouble with it.
Amber squeezed my shoulder and disappeared with the girls toward the bathroom. The sound of water rushing into the tub filtered out a few moments later. I returned to the kitchen counter and the enrollment form waiting on it.
Ellison Academy was a fantastic school, probably the most prestigious in the city, but the reality was that I could never afford it. Not unless I robbed a bank. The upside was that the public school I’d been talking to ever since I’d decided to move back to Chicago wasn’t bad either. They’d been exceptionally helpful and kind. The girls could be happy there.
So I shoved the enrollment form away and turned to the stack of mail Amber had dropped on the counter on her way in. I worked my way through it, finding mostly bills, a grocery storeflyer, and a newsletter from the pediatrician outlining proper hand-washing practices.
Near the bottom of the pile, there was a thick envelope from my bank. My family had used the same private bank for generations and their letters usually meant one of two things: either it was bad news or rich people nonsense. I already knew my trust fund was gone, so it couldn’t be bad news.
Frankly, there wasn’t enough money left in my account for that to be possible, which meant this was probably nonsense. I slid my finger under the tab and opened it, fully expecting a booklet on new investment opportunities or a guide on how to make money on the stock market, but what I found myself staring at instead nearly stopped my heart.
At first, I genuinely thought I was reading it wrong or that maybe there had been a decimal error, but that didn’t make sense either because it was also a statement for the wrong type of account. According to the letter, this was about anestateaccount.
I didn’t have one of those, but it looked like one had been set up in my name with Jennifer and Lu attached as beneficiaries. And the supposed balance of the account was absolutely ridiculous. It was so absurd that for a second, I wondered if my grandfather had passed away.
That was the first thought that sped across my mind as I stared at the life-changing sum of money apparently sitting in an account owned by me. It was “girls go to private school and never need student loans”kind of money. A “much bigger, much better house paid for in cash” kind of money.
Hell, it was way more than just that, but then I remembered I’d texted with my grandfather just this morning. He was very much alive.
I must’ve blacked out for a minute because the next thing I knew I was in my bedroom with the door shut and my phone inmy hand, calling Zach. He answered on the first ring. “Adeline? Is everything okay?”
The concerned alarm in his tone brought a thick lump of emotion to my throat. I lowered myself to the edge of my bed, my hand suddenly trembling a little as I stared blankly at the back of my bedroom door.
“Why are you giving me money?” I croaked past the massive lump. “I know it was you, Zach. I just got the confirmation letters from the bank and there’s no other way I suddenly have access to that amount of money.”
There was a beat of silence followed by a long exhale.So, itwashim.
“Surprise,” he said. “I just paid the girls’ tuition for next year at Ellison, too. That is where you wanted to send them, right?”
Tears welled like magic on my eyelids and I very nearly stopped breathing. No one hadeverlistened that closely before. I’d mentioned Ellisononcewhile we’d been in Wisconsin, one night over pizza while Amber and I had been discussing how we were going to keep the girls’ schoolwork on track.
“Why are you doing this?” I finally managed to ask, but at the back of my mind, a small, increasingly irritated voice already knew the answer.Why do you think? Are you really this blind? No, not blind. Damaged.
Zach didn’t answer right away, and in the silence that stretched between us, I could hear faint office noises at his end, phones ringing, a door shutting, and the faint rustling of papers.
