“Wow,” Cori whispered.

“I know!” Blair muttered.

Blair sat beside her best friend in the front seat of Cori’s car and stared straight ahead. She’d expected the reading of her parents’ will to be hard, but not downright unbelievable. First thing, she couldn’t pick the date she wanted the will read—it was already stipulated within the will. So, right after they found their bodies and buried them, she forced herself to show up at her parents’ lawyer’s office for it. Then to make matters worse, they told her she was now a multi-millionaire because her parents were stinking rich.

“Wow,” Cori repeated.

“I know!” Blair’s reply was the same each time. Her whole body was throbbing as if someone had sucked it through a wringer and left her there. “This is insane! There is no way my parents had that much money!”

“Well, it’s right there in black and white, Blair, you can’t really deny it.”

“Maybe the lawyer made a mistake. Maybe it was a computer glitch. There had to be a reasonable explanation—right?”

“We’ve checked the will,” Cori countered. “We’ve read the words. It’s there as plain as the nose on your face.”

“Wow,” Blair said.

“Your parents were filthy rich and they said nothing. That is what really gets my damn goat, you know. All the heartache we went through with school and all that trying to find you enough money to pay tuition and your double shifts and borrowing money from them—all of it was not necessary!”

Blair thought back to all the instances Cori mentioned. She remembered the shame she felt when that red letter showed up with urgent stamped on the outside of the envelope explaining to her she would be kicked out of school if her outstanding tuition wasn’t paid.

“And a house in Burkeshire?” Cori continued. “What is up with that? Do you think you’re going to head there like the will said?”

Blair shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Cori started the car and made their way through rush hour traffic from the center of Toronto and into North York. “I tell you one thing…I never thought anything like this would ever happen.”

“You’re preaching to the choir,” Blair muttered. “A part of me is curious about this place in Burkeshire. I want to see what it’s like—if it really exists.”

“Then, go.”

“But I’d have to take time off work and…”

Cori made an annoyed sound in the back of her throat. “It’s not like you can’t afford to take time off work—hell, if you don’t want to ever work again, you don’t have to, and your kids won’t have to.”

“ I don’t know about kids.”

“Oh, please. Look…” Cori trailed off to check the mirrors, then pulled into Blair’s driveway. Once she’d turned off the ignition, Cori twisted in her seat and met Blair’s gaze. “Weren’t… weren’t you the one who always told me not to look a gift horse in the mouth?”

“This is different!” Blair pleaded.

“And how precisely is it different?”

Blair thought about the question and a million and one different explanations followed, none of them making any sense. “My parents are—er—were wealthy and lied to me about it. I’d say that qualifies this whole torrid situation as being different, don’t you?”

“Think about it—you have this money now. Once you’ve put away some for your future and your children’s future, you can take some and do the stuff you’ve always wanted to do and couldn’t.” Cori patted Blair’s shoulder. “That photography gig you wanted to get done? The travelling? Once you figure out this mystery, which I know you’ll be going after, do something for you.

Blair merely nodded.

“You want some company tonight?” Cori questioned. “I could run out, grab a bottle of wine, enough junk food to cause a small stroke and some girlie-corny movies. What do you say?”

Blair smiled. The truth was, she didn’t want any company. She wanted to be alone so she could spend the night digging through her parents’ bank records, investments and all that stuff to see where all that money came from. Still, she knew Cori, and the woman would just worry the whole night about Blair. Instead, she nodded. “That’d be great.” Blair rummaged through her purse for a twenty-dollar bill and handed it to Cori.

“Can you get some Grape Nut ice cream too?” Blair questioned before handing her another bill. “I’ll be inside.”

Cori kissed Blair’s cheek and she climbed from the car. Blair watched her best friend disappear down the street, then climbed the steps leading to her front door. The house was small but clean, and it was hers. Still, she couldn’t help wondering how differently her life would have turned out if she’d known her parents could buy a couple of small islands and still have enough over to buy a private plane. Jamming the key in, she twisted her wrist until the lock slid. With a final look over her shoulders, she entered, closed the door behind her and kicked her shoes off. Her first stop was to enter the living room and toss herself dramatically onto the sofa with a heavy sigh.

Burkeshire—she’d been there once before with Cori on a spring break kind of thing. While everyone else was going to Vegas and Mexico and even Cuba and Puerto Rico, Blair couldn’t afford any of that. The most she could do was a trip to Cori’s parents’ beach house in the luxury cottage country. But that only happened once—a couple of months later, Cori’s parents sold the place, since they hardly used it anyway.

Blair flopped over knowing she should get up and change—to show Cori she was at least trying to feel better over her parents’ death and their web of lies, but a few more minutes wouldn’t hurt. It’d been a week and the wound was still fresh.

Eventually, Blair forced herself to her feet and took a shower. She was getting dressed when Cori called for her from downstairs. Quickly, Blair hauled on a pair of pants and a tank top and brushed her hair into a ponytail. She squirted some perfume on her neck, glancing at her reflection in the mirror to pull herself together before jogging down the stairs. By the time she stepped off the final stair, she had a small smile on her face.