3 months later
"A what?" Jenny said sitting in the lawyer's office. She and her parents looked at each other.
"Who?" Her dad said.
"Miss. Bethany James." The lawyer answered.
Jenny's father shook his head. "Never heard of her."
"Your mother's second cousin's, aunt."
Her dad shrugged. "That is one of the families names, but I've never heard of her. And my parents are both both deceased and I don't have any siblings so I can't even ask them."
"This is actually more common than you think," the lawyer said, "people don't know all their distant relatives and many people don't think to draw up wills."
"So some distant relative of ours, who none of us have heard of, dies three years ago with no will, no close family and we are the next of kin and so her money goes to us?" Jenny asked.
"Yes." The lawyer said looking down and shuffling the papers.
Jenny crossed her big cardigan around her and tried to hide her big stomach. If she was right about where this mystery money was coming from, she did not want them knowing she was pregnant.
"How much?" Jenny's mother asked.
The lawyer pushed the papers across the table and they all leaned in and looked. Jenny heard a collective gasp rise up from her mother and father.
"And... this is real, this is not a mistake, this is for us?" Her mother asked, there was an excited desperation in her voice.
The lawyer nodded and Jenny's parents released a collective sigh of relief and then hugged each other.
"I can't believe it." Her father sounded like he was going to cry. Jenny looked up at them and the worry that had been etched into their faces for so long, was gone. "I just can't believe it.!"
"Me neither." Jenny said pointedly looking over at the lawyer. Her parents were so happy and excited that she could see they weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth- no matter how odd this gift was.
"I just need your signatures and then it's yours. Each of you have been given varying amounts."
Jenny bit her lip. A clever move by Rafiq. Give her parents money too, and of course Jenny would not be able to refuse it. Jenny signed the papers and she and her parents exited. They looked so relieved and happy that she decided to drop it. Accept the money, pretend it's some amazing, fortuitous, gift from God knows where.... only she knew exactly where the money came from.
Besides, she was pregnant now and that changed things. Her daughter would be arriving soon and legally she would be entitled to ask for child support, so this was like that, just all at once. In a way it was a relief, she wouldn't need to worry about Abigail. That was the name she'd decided on, Abi. It hadn't been her first choice, Madeline had. Maddie. But she and Emma had both liked that same name, the day they were reading through the baby name book together. So they'd written the names on pieces of paper and put them in a hat. That's how she'd landed up with Abigail. She smiled to herself, Abi and Maddie. They already sounded like trouble.
She had to drive back to town now, she was having a baby shower for Emma later that day and she had to rush back to help Anton finish decorating the house while she was out.
Life wasn't so bad here actually. She'd rekindled friendships that she couldn't believe had ever been over. It all seemed like such a childish fight now. Who was she to stand in the way of true love? Anton and Emma had fallen in love with each other and it was real and she couldn't resent that. Enough time had passed now and they had all matured and it felt great being together again. It was as if they had never really been apart at all. She reached the car and suddenly heard a clicking noise, it sounded like a camera flash, she swung around and looked behind her. But there was no one there.