Money felt lonely to me.
“Why did you adopt her?”
Alex turned and looked at the boy that was his nephew if only on paper.
“You could have had anything, anyone that you wanted. You didn’t have to make her your sister in order to have her in your family. No one would have questioned you for any of it.”
The old man smiled at the much younger man in front of him, “I wanted to make sure that, in the very likely case of my death, the money would go to someone who wouldn’t appreciate it.”
Matt blinked, “What?”
“Your mother wasn’t ever very big on monetary things. She absolutely hated the fact that we lived in a mansion whenever we went to visit anywhere outside of the city. She wouldn’t appreciate anything that cost money from me, but she wouldn’t waste it either, so it had to go to her. The best way to do that without having someone take her to mediation was to adopt her as my sister.” The bald man smirked mischievously, “I toyed with the idea of making her my daughter, but Mary threatened to disappear whenever I entered a room if I did that.”
“So you made her your heir in the event that you had no children.”
Alex’s smirk dropped, “I had a son once. He died. I could have no others after him.”
Matt was silent for a moment, remembering the young man whose paternity had always been in question for some reason even though he had the same looks as his father. It had only been covered in history class because of the status of the father in the making of their country.
“Mary didn’t want money, what she wanted was family and I could understand that. Money never brought me any family, but your mother. For that alone, I would have her be my heir and through her, you and your brother.”
Breathing In 