“Ms. Emma Hayes?” a calm voice said. “This is David Lin, attorney with Lin & McCallister. I’m sorry to disturb you, but I have urgent news regarding your great-uncle, Mr. Charles Whitmore.”
The name froze me in place. Charles Whitmore. A man I hadn’t spoken to since I was a teenager. My parents used to talk about him—brilliant, stubborn, wealthy beyond measure—but after they passed, contact with that side of the family had simply disappeared.
My breath caught. “I think you have the wrong person.”
“No mistake,” he said. “Mr. Whitmore left you his entire estate, including ownership of Whitmore Industries.”
For a long moment, I couldn’t speak. “Whitmore Industries? The energy corporation?”
“The very same. You are now the primary shareholder and beneficiary of an estate valued in the billions. However,” he paused, “there is one condition.”
Those words—“one condition”—hung in the air like thunder.
I looked at my reflection in the courthouse window: tired eyes, a worn dress, a woman everyone had dismissed. But in that instant, I felt something shift deep within me.
My story wasn’t over. It was only changing chapters.
