I stood still under the dim streetlight, the parchment trembling slightly in my hands. The words in the letter seemed to leap off the page, one weighty sentence at a time.
"Carmen, my beloved granddaughter,
If you're reading this, I'm gone. I hope you don't find this too sudden or dramatic, but I've waited as long as I could to make this decision.
Our family's legacy is vast, but it is not without its complications. I've chosen you because I believe you'll make the right decisions for the family and for yourself.
I leave to you half of my fortune: $55 billion, and our ancestral home in the vampire realm the estate where you spent so much of your childhood.
I know how much that house means to you; it was always more than just walls and a roof. It was where you first learned what it means to belong to something greater than yourself.
However, there is one condition to all of this: you must be married to claim it.
