She vaguely recalled her mother’s sister, whom she’d met only once at Aunt Tina’s wedding to Alexander. Reina had packed Portia and Viola into their VW Beetle and driven overnight from . . . heck if she could remember where they’d lived when she was five . . . arriving at the Greek Orthodox Church only a few minutes before the wedding ceremony was to begin. While Aunt Tina had waited to walk down the aisle, her mother had stuffed Portia and her sister into matching puffy white lace and tulle flower girl dresses, stuck crowns of pink flowers on their heads, and pushed them on their merry way. Portia would’ve almost felt like a princess except her mother hadn’t bought them new shoes and they’d had to wear their old dirty sneakers. As they shuffled down the aisle dropping rose petals along the way, she’d felt the pitying stares of the guests. When she reached the front, she’d burst into tears and fled from the room.
As if clearing the memory from her mind, she shook her head and focused on the present.
Ryan frowned and gave her a sideways glance. “And why are we both here?”
“Alexander left something in his Will for his eldest living niece and nephew. That’s you two,” George explained.
Portia’s foot cramped, no doubt a combination of stress and the heels she’d worn. Automatically, she began doing the exercises recommended by her occupational therapist. Flex. Point. Flex. Point. “But why us? I mean, I didn’t even know Alexander. Why would he leave something to someone he wasn’t even biologically related to?”
Ryan’s gaze lowered to watch her foot, then lifted to her face. She recognized the heat in his eyes, but it was mixed with something else she couldn’t ascertain. Heat unfurled in her chest, and her heart quickened.
George played with the ends of his uneven black mustache. “It’s not my place to tell my clients how to dole out their estate. As his attorney, I wrote up his wishes to the extent permissible by law. As the Executor, I’m to enforce the Will and oversee its provisions. Clearly, he felt some connection to the two of you. Enough that he left you his house.”
The edges of her vision went fuzzy. Her neck tingled and a light euphoria tickled her belly. What was happening?
As if a movie played in front of her, she saw herself dancing in that same ballroom she’d dreamed of the night before. A shadowed man stood in the doorway watching.
The picture changed and now, she was standing on a driveway next to the shadowed man, looking up at a white-brick mansion. Although she couldn’t make out the details, she knew it belonged to her.
Before she could make sense of it, the movie disappeared and reality returned. She was still in George’s office. Her uncle had left her a house. The one she’d just imagined?
“The one on the lake?” Ryan sounded surprised. Glad to know she wasn’t the only one.
George nodded and handed Ryan a piece a paper, which he immediately stopped to read. She leaned over to see what it was.
“I’m confused,” Ryan stated, handing over the deed to Portia. “He left the house to both of us?”
How would that work? It wasn’t as though they could live together. She perused the deed but she didn’t understand much of it. It contained the legal description outlining the legal property boundaries and provided it was owned by the Alexander Stavros Trust. Why would her uncle have left the house to both of them?
“He did. His Trust owns it free and clear, and the Will made provisions to cover any costs of the transfer, so other than property tax, insurance, and utilities, you won’t have to pay a cent,” George said, drumming his fingers on his desk.
“That might be a problem,” she said. Both men waited for her to explain. “I don’t have savings or a job at the moment. I can’t afford to pay those things.”
She had nothing more than a hundred dollars in her wallet and a suitcase filled with clothes at her sister’s apartment. This was supposed to be her fresh start.
“We won’t have to pay a dime,” Ryan said.
“We won’t?” she asked.
“No. We’ll sell it. Even in this economy, the house must be worth more than four million dollars. We’ll each get half and none of the stress that comes with owning it.”
Two million dollars? She could certainly buy any house she wanted with that amount of money. But what if the vision was a sign this house was meant for her?
“Well . . .” George shifted in his chair. “Unfortunately, that won’t work. There’s a slight catch.”
“A catch? What do you mean?” Ryan asked, his eyes narrowing.
George reclined all the way back in his seat, his feet no longer touching the floor. “The Will states that the two of you must live in the house for ninety consecutive days before the deed transfers to your names. If either one of you fails to do so, the house will go to someone else.”