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“It is,” Mom agrees. “So, if Monty marries before his thirty-fifth birthday, and if you two remain married for a year, you’ll inherit one of the four trusts.”

“No way. That doesn’t sound very fair. Shouldn’t you get the money? You’re her daughter.”

“You know, after all these years, I think I understand my mother’s intentions now. It may be a little crazy, but this is what she wanted.”

Clearing my throat, I lean over to ask Kendall, “Aren’t you just a little bit curious about how much money you’ll inherit on our one-year anniversary, cupcake?”

She blinks up at me. “I mean…does it really matter?”

“Oh, sweetheart. It matters,” Mom tells her. “Just think of all the good someone as sweet as you could do with half a billion dollars.”

Kendall’s mouth falls open. “Shut up. Half a billion?”

“Yes.”

“Wow. Wow! That’s a lot of money. Split four ways, that’s like…a hundred and twenty-five million. Right?”

I shake my head and so does my mother.

“No? My brain is fried. I can’t even do simple math.”

“Your math is fine. But it’s not half a billion split four ways. It’s two billion split four ways.”

“Oh. Oh!” Kendall says again. “Holy shit.”

I chuckle at her reaction. “You know all those birthday wishes you won’t tell me about? Well, the money is yours to do whatever you want with it. You can make all your dreams come true.”

“All my wishes have already come true,” Kendall replies with a beaming smile at me that I have to kiss.

“I’m sure you can think of a few extravagant purchases. Like maybe a catio for Mr. Jingles?”

“Oh my gosh, yes!” she agrees.

“You can spoil him as much as you want, you just can’t give any of the money to me,” I tell her with a chuckle.

“Why not?” Kendall asks as her shoulders droop.

“That’s another string,” I tell her. “Grandma Bradley tied her money up nice and tight to keep it away from us Crawfords. No lavish gifts are permitted. You can buy me say, a new Ferrari as a gift, but the title has to remain in your name. If you want to buy us a house, it’ll technically be your house. Your name on the deed.”

“The money can’t be claimed in any way by my children,” Mom explains. “There’s a trustee that oversees all the distributions.”

“What if…what if I wanted to use the money to buy Crawford Holdings?”

My brow furrows. “Why would you want to buy our company?

“To make sure there are no more layoffs. And so, you could finally be free to run your charity again. I would pay a million dollars just to see you building a house.”

No one has ever believed in that version of me the way she does.

“I knew you picked the right woman, honey,” Mom says as I lean over and kiss my fiancé.

“You would really do that for me? For the employees?”

“I would do anything for them and for you,” Kendall says.

I kiss her again, this time a little longer, a little deeper, until my mom says, “The food is here.”

When I pull away, Richard has returned and steaming plates of food sit in front of each of us.