She had always been more interested in what money could buy than in how it was earned.
But my father had been careful.
Especially during the last years of his illness.
He had transferred his separate assets into a trust and appointed an independent trustee to administer them after his death.
The trust named his two daughters as beneficiaries.
There was one important condition.
To receive an inheritance, each daughter had to demonstrate at least ten years of lawful, continuous employment.
If we both qualified, the estate would be divided equally.
If only one qualified, the other daughter would not receive an automatic share. The qualifying daughter would receive the distributable estate.
Dad had insisted on that provision.
I knew why.
Liora had never held a conventional job for longer than a season.
She had been a consultant, a stylist, a creative director, and briefly the manager of a small boutique.
For most of her adult life, she had lived with our parents or relied on their financial support.
She talked about launching businesses.
She purchased expensive planners.
She attended networking events.
She had beautiful websites for projects that never seemed to produce actual work.
Whenever Dad asked how things were going, she answered with words like development, branding, and transition.
Our mother considered this ambition.
Dad considered it avoidance.
But he loved her.
He loved us both.
And his trust was supposed to ensure that neither of us inherited a lifetime of financial security without first demonstrating that we could support ourselves.
For me, the employment requirement should have been straightforward.
Eighteen years.
One employer.
The United States Navy.
Unfortunately, most of my assignments could not be described in an ordinary employment verification.
Some of my duty history was restricted. Some associated assignments were classified. My civilian records offered very little information about where I had lived or worked.
The Navy could verify my service.
But my mother had built her case around the fact that her investigator couldn’t find it in civilian databases.
