At the will reading, my parents beamed as my sister received eighteen million dollars and shoved a crumpled five-dollar bill toward me, sneering that I was “useless”—until my grandfather’s lawyer opened a yellowed envelope and everything changed. My name is Ammani Johnson, and at thirty-two I thought I was done being humiliated by my family. I was wrong.
I sat on the plush leather chair in Mr. Bradshaw’s penthouse office in Atlanta, my back straight, my hands clasped in my lap. The air was thick with the smell of old money and smug satisfaction.
I tried not to look at the five-dollar bill sitting on the mahogany desk in front of me—a fresh, crisp note, probably taken from my mother’s Chanel wallet this morning specifically for this performance. “Eighteen million dollars,” my sister Ania said, her voice a high-pitched trill. She was already texting, her thumbs flying across her phone screen, no doubt updating her thousands of social media followers.
“Marcus, baby, can you believe it? We can finally start building the house in Buckhead.”
Marcus, her husband, a pale, thin man in a suit that cost more than my car, simply squeezed her hand and smiled. He was the picture of quiet, confident control—the one managing their new eighteen-million-dollar trust.
“You deserve it, honey,” our mother Janelle said, beaming. She adjusted her pearls, her eyes shining with pride for her golden child. “You and Marcus have been such a blessing.
You are the future of this family’s legacy.”
She finally turned her gaze to me. Her expression hardened instantly into that familiar mix of pity and annoyance. “Ammani, don’t look so tragic.
Five dollars is a start. We’re just teaching you accountability. Your father and I feel it’s important you learn to earn your own way.”
“Exactly,” my father David chimed in, his voice booming from the head of the table.
He hadn’t built his construction empire by giving handouts, a fact he reminded us of weekly. “Ania and Marcus understand investment. They understand how to build wealth.
You”—he gestured dismissively toward me—”you work in that dusty nonprofit museum. You don’t understand the value of a dollar. This”—he pointed at the five-dollar bill—”is a lesson.”
Ania finally looked up from her phone, her perfectly glossed lips curled into a smirk.
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