Page 90 of The Paradise Problem

“No, like you said, I have a job.” I grin at her, continuing, “With the approach of our five-year anniversary and in anticipation of the full balance of the trust coming into my name, I asked my attorney to clarify a few details about the inheritance. Whether there were any limits on its application, stuff like that.”

“You mean,” she cuts in, “like rules about how you can spend it?”

“Exactly.” I shift, rolling to my side to face her. “You know most of the important details, like how the trust stipulates a marriage to trigger the inheritance, and if there’s a divorce before the fifth anniversary, we forfeit the remaining balance.”

Anna huffs out a laugh. “It’s so wild.”

“Well, what I didn’t know, and what I’m guessing none of my siblings know, is that if the estate attorney—in this case, the firm that represents the money held in my grandfather’s trust—finds evidence of artifice or fraud—”

Her eyes widen. “Like marrying someone to get student housing?”

I nod. “Yes. If they find evidence of fraud in the five-year window, the clause makes the fulfillment of the trust null and void.”

“Even though we’re legally married? You’d lose everything?”

“I’d lose everything, yes, but there’s more.” I trace the line of her collarbones from one shoulder to the other. “I can’t say whether it was my grandfather’s intention, because of course he’s gone, and the attorney who drew up the documents has also passed away. But it appears that my grandfather wanted to find a way to bind the siblings together, to inspire us to support and confide in each other. He was always encouraging me to be kinder to Alex, to come from a place of understanding and empathy. In hindsight, I realize that he knew how much of a wedge our father drove between us, but he could never have anticipated how little any of us, as adults, actually disclose to each other at all.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that the way he worded the clause in the trust concerned with our inheritance, legally, if one marriage is deemed fraudulent, the entire clause is nullified. The legal interpretation seems to be that it wouldn’t be one sibling’s inheritance but the entire balance of the account—nearly half a billion dollars—going to charity.”

Anna stares at me.

“If one falls,” I say, “we all fall.”

I see the moment it fully lands. Dread washes her out, and she pushes to sit, the sheets falling to her waist. “You’re telling me that if we get busted, Jake could lose the possibility of an inheritance? Charlie?”

“It appears so.”

“What about Blaire and Alex? They’ve been married for over a decade.”

“It doesn’t seem to matter. The money was put into an account for each of us. It is my and my attorneys’ understanding that access would be cut off—at the very least it would be restricted until the wording could be clarified in court. But this is the leverage I mean: my father wants me to come on as CEO. He’s looking for leverage. Don’t you think if he knew he could hold my siblings’ inheritances over my head, he would?”

“So if he finds out, it’s your life or their money?”

I nod.

“And you don’t think your siblings know?”

“I can’t imagine they do. Otherwise Alex would be doing everything he could to not sabotage this.”

Two furrowed lines appear between her brows. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you just tell them?”

“I only got clarity a couple weeks ago,” I say, shrugging. “I thought I would be able to come here alone. I didn’t think I would have to involve you in it. I didn’t think it would turn into a circus. But then my mom implied that my father was getting suspicious about us. I don’t know if he’s aware of the loophole, but I’m sure his lawyers are. Or will be.”

“Now if you tried to tell your siblings while we’re here, you’d have to admit to Alex that we’re lying,” she says, nodding in understanding.

“And he’d either want his lawyers to confirm, or—more likely, since his lawyers would take weeks to do that—immediately go to Dad and ask if I’m telling the truth.”

Anna exhales a quiet, “Fuck.”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

I blow out a breath, closing my eyes. “I didn’t want you to feel the enormity of it. The pressure is… intense.”

“You didn’t have to handle this alone.”

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