Natalie contemplated the mess her mother had left behind. She liked to hope she would never be so irresponsible with her finances … yet her mom had been happy, as far as Natalie could tell. She lived for the shop, and although it had pounded her into debt, she had been beloved and connected in ways that had nothing to do with security.

Natalie wasn’t sure she had the nerve to embrace that kind of risk.

She nodded with a tremulous smile at the sympathetic woman. What Natalie didn’t want to tell customers was something that was becoming increasingly, depressingly clear. Without Blythe, the bookstore would cease to exist at all.

6

You can’t sell the shop,” the lawyer said. “Not the building or the business or its assets.”

Natalie felt a twist in her gut as she stared across the table at Helena Hart, attorney-at-law. She was the only lawyer Natalie had been able to find online who was willing to work without being given a giant retainer fee up front. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s not yours to sell.”

“It’s … That makes no sense. My mother left me everything, according to the will I found in her files.”

“That’s true,” said the lawyer, “and the document you showed me is certainly valid. You’re the only beneficiary named. But I’m sorry to say that, based on the records provided, the only thing your mother left to you were her personal effects … and her debt. A deceased person’s debt can be recouped from their estate—assuming there’s something of value in it—although you wouldn’t be personally responsible for paying for it.”

Natalie’s stomach churned faster. The deeper she peered into her mother’s records, the more little nightmares she discovered. The crushing debt included unpaid back taxes and bills, ignored notices, a scary balloon loan coming due. Her mother had borrowed from a private lending firm at an exorbitant rate. “I’m aware of the debt. There’ve been some major medical expenses related to my grandfather. The shop’s operating expenses are steep. My mother wasn’t a bad person,” she told Helena. “She just wasn’t focused on bookkeeping details. But the physical assets, the bookstore inventory, the building itself—”

“Those did not belong to your mother. Both are in the sole possession of your grandfather, Andrew Harper.”

Natalie absorbed this information in silence. “I wasn’t aware of that. It never occurred to me that … I guess I always assumed she was the owner of the business, if not the building.”

Ms. Hart shook her head. “Not even a partner. From my reading of the records, they never had a formal partnership agreement. Your grandfather is sole proprietor of the business.”

“Wow. I had no idea.”