Chapter 12 - THE MONEY MARIA DID NOT WANT TO OWE ANYONE
Fourteen million dollars sounded unreal.
Maria did not celebrate.
She became suspicious.
Good.
Her attorney, Rebecca Chen, reviewed everything independently.
No Petrov lawyer represented Maria.
Alexei insisted on that.
The trust was valid.
The codicil was valid.
The ledger requirement unusual but enforceable under the structure created decades earlier.
After verification, Maria and Carlos were both descendants.
Equal beneficiaries.
Carlos laughed when she told him.
From jail.
“So I’m rich?”
“No.”
“Half of fourteen million sounds rich.”
“You have legal issues, debts, and probably tax questions.”
“You really know how to ruin things.”
She almost smiled.
Carlos’s share would require safeguards because of creditors and his history.
Maria’s too.
She chose professional management.
No giant mansion.
No resignation speech.
Not yet.
Then Alexei called her into the study.
The room where he collapsed.
She hesitated at the doorway.
He noticed.
“We can meet somewhere else.”
“No.”
She entered.
Sophie followed carrying the plastic stethoscope.
Of course.
Alexei had returned to work.
Coffee now arrived through a security protocol so elaborate Maria found it absurd.
Sophie inspected his cup anyway.
“Safe?”
“Yes.”
She sniffed it.
“Okay.”
Then wandered toward the window.
Alexei looked at Maria.
“You are resigning.”
Not a question.
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“Reasonable.”
She had expected resistance.
“There’s more.”
He waited.
“I want to go back to school.”
Something changed in his expression.
“Nursing?”
“Yes.”
Her father’s letter.
Her childhood dream.
Sophie’s ridiculous little doctor kit.
All of it had reopened a door.
Then Alexei said:
“I’ll pay.”
Maria’s spine stiffened.
“No.”
He immediately corrected.
“The company has an employee education program.”
“For housekeepers?”
“It does now.”
She stared.
He almost smiled.
“Then no.”
That surprised him.
“Why?”
“Because I can pay.”
The inheritance.
Her inheritance.
Her choice.
Alexei nodded.
“Fair.”
Then:
“But the program remains. Other employees should not need fourteen million dollars to go back to school.”
That was the right answer.
Maria agreed.
Then Sophie ran over.
“Mr. Alexei.”
“Yes?”
“You still need doctor?”
“I hope not.”
She looked disappointed.
Alexei added:
“But I require checkups.”
Sophie placed the toy stethoscope against his knee.
“Heart is here.”
Maria laughed so hard she had to sit down.
Alexei did too.
It was the first time she heard him laugh without restraint.
Then Carlos’s attorney called.
There was movement in his case.
His cooperation regarding Viktor helped investigators, but it did not erase his own offenses.
Carlos would still face consequences.
He accepted that.
For the first time in years, he told Maria:
“I’m tired of surviving by lying.”
That sentence sounded like their family.
Then Viktor’s case produced another revelation.
He had not acted alone.
Pavel—the temporary gardener—had been arrested.
But there was a third person inside the estate.
Someone who provided Alexei’s medical pouch location.
Someone knew the epinephrine injector was in his desk.
Only a handful of people knew.
Dmitri.
Alexei’s physician.
Elena.
And—
Alexei’s fiancée, Katherine Bell.
Maria had met her only twice.
Elegant.
Cold.
Scheduled to marry Alexei in six months.
May you like
Security records showed Katherine entering the study the night before the poisoning.
She had never mentioned it.
