“And the apartment deposit?”
She looked away.
“Mom said she would send my share as soon as I landed.”
“Your share of Nana’s estate?”
“Yes.”
“Did she tell you she planned to empty the whole account?”
Emma’s eyes snapped back to the screen.
“What?”
I watched her face carefully.
The confusion looked real.
“Mom texted me that they cleaned it out.
They tried using the account in Barcelona.”
Emma shook her head.
“No.
She said Dad had everything organized.
She said they would move my inheritance into my account after they got settled.”
“Why would they need to get settled before giving you your own money?”
She stared at me.
For once, Emma had no fast answer.
I said, “Your share is safe.”
Her face changed.
“You have it?”
“It’s protected.
Mr.
Feldman has the paperwork.”
“Can you send it?”
There it was.
The question I had expected.
I looked at Lily asleep in my arms.
“Not to Jake.”
“It’s my money.”
“Yes.
Which is why you should receive it properly, in your name, after you speak with Feldman.
Not through Mom, not through Dad, and not into an apartment for a man who couldn’t be bothered to meet you at the airport.”
Emma’s mouth tightened.
“You always do this.”
“Do what?”
“Talk to me like I’m a disaster.”
I almost answered too quickly.
Then I stopped.
“You left your six-month-old daughter on my doorstep at five in the morning with paperwork already packed.”
Emma’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
“You didn’t ask me to babysit.
You transferred your entire life to me in a diaper bag because you thought money would be waiting in London.”
“I know.”
“And I love Lily enough that I said yes anyway.
But you don’t get to make me the villain because I won’t wire your inheritance into whatever this is.”
Emma covered her mouth.
For a while I heard only airport announcements behind her.
Then she whispered, “I want to come home.”
That was the first decision anybody in my family had made all day that did not depend on Nana’s money.
“Then come home,” I said.
She nodded.
“I don’t have enough for another ticket.”
I believed her.
