
09/15/2025
I’d never bothered to ponder what my mother-in-law would pass on. She had money, but surely my husband and his sister were the natural heirs. So, sitting in the lawyer’s office after the funeral, I expected the reading to be uneventful—just dotting i’s and crossing t’s.
Then the lawyer spoke: "Her lake house and assets all go to Delaney."
At first, I thought she’d gifted them to some long-lost friend. But then quiet fell over the room, and every pair of eyes locked on me. My name is Delaney. It took a beat for that to sink in and the confusion on my husband’s face was a mirror of mine—until shock overtook me.
Why me? Why not her own children? The silence felt crushing. Just as I tried to speak up, the lawyer interjected: "But on ONE CONDITION…"