The Inheritance

The Valentine mansion loomed under the moonlight, its dark, polished windows glinting like watchful eyes over the three young women standing at the base of the stone steps. Mae, Jess, and Lydia clutched identical letters bearing the Valentine family crest, each promising an “opportunity to claim what is rightfully yours, if you are worthy.”

The letters had arrived a week earlier, addressed to each of them by name. Only family members over twenty-one, they’d been told, were eligible to enter. Horace Valentine, a distant relative who had vanished decades ago, had left behind a fortune of $100 million, rumored to be hidden somewhere inside the estate. The mansion, notorious for its traps, was said to sift the greedy from the worthy, only sparing those with the purest intentions. Some who had entered left empty-handed; others hadn’t left at all.