Chapter 23 - Thomas’s daughter
Rachel Reed eventually confronted me.
Not angrily.
Carefully.
“My father’s trust.”
“Yes.”
“Fifteen percent?”
“Approximately.”
She stared.
“That could be eighty million dollars.”
“Depending on valuation at my death.”
“You understand how insane that sounds?”
“Yes.”
“Why not five?”
“Why not fifteen?”
“Because he changed a tire once?”
“He did not change a tire.”
“You know what I mean.”
I smiled.
She did not.
Then I answered seriously.
“Because your father became one of the few people in my life who would tell me no even when saying yes would benefit him.”
“That’s worth eighty million?”
“No.”
“What is?”
“Nothing, mathematically.”
There.
Inheritance is not compensation.
I was not paying Thomas market price for saving me.
I was choosing where my property would go.
Rachel looked down.
“My dad is scared.”
“I know.”
“He thinks money will change everything.”
“It will.”
“Then?”
“We build structures.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You rich people really think paperwork can fix souls.”
“No.”
I thought about Daniel.
“Paperwork can limit what damaged souls can do with money.”
May you like
That she accepted.
Mostly.
