Chapter 36

"Bill? Will you be able to trust me?" Bill had volunteered to drop me off home on his way to Grandma Tina's and I was trying to imagine what inheriting a billion pounds would be like if he died.

"‘Will you be able to trust yourself’ is more the question and part of me wishes you'd say 'Keep your stupid inheritance!'".

"I've thought it would be nice to be rich so I could have a car… Maybe even very rich so I didn't have to worry about what I spent, although that's starting to be creepy, A billion pounds though… that's 10 billion Chinese yuan but I don't know what you can buy in China with a yuan…"

After dinner at home, in her place at the kitchen sink Venus glanced across at her mother browsing through the television section of the Sunday paper. Her mum's birthday was next Friday and Venus wanted to get something special to mark what seemed a real mother/daughter relationship improvement but Bill's bombshell news wasn't helping Venus at all! The prospect of huge amounts of money changed so many of her assumptions - what value was there in the hard work and self-sacrifice her mum had invested that couldn't be bought with cash?

"Venus, you are an absolute genius if I say so myself!" I was in fact saying so to myself as I got into bed (alone) that night and nobody else would say it but I had talked to Dad, Litara, the restaurant and Evan fixing details for a Birthday dinner at the new Mermaid Quay development.

Having been told I'm heir to a massive fortune, the first thing I found was that I couldn't bring myself to tell my family and now, instead of having dreams of a life of luxury, at 5 am I'm in the shower washing off the sweat of nightmare visions of people in agony begging for my help!

Outside in the early sun I would have liked to jog but my surgical stitches said no. They didn't however stop me enjoying a gentle 3 mile walk to blow away the cobwebs before rejoining my family for breakfast.

"Who's our GP Mum?" For all my recent medical adventures I hadn't seen a regular NHS doctor in 3 years and was suddenly feeling health conscious to the extent I was eating muesli, fruit and yoghurt instead of a regular bowl of cornflakes. It was mid-October and in 6 weeks I'd be making a transatlantic voyage that could take a month despite almost dying just 6 days ago. An independent reality check was definitely in order and, with Mums information, I made an appointment for the GP's evening surgery

Some of my medical costs were covered by the NHS but others through Litara's company so I asked her advice. Being super rich in 10 or 20 years wouldn't keep me from being bankrupt today if I weren't very careful. Dad didn't want me working until I'd healed, even on sit down jobs at the yard so money was soon going to be a real issue.

The other other thing I desperately wanted was a very long private talk with Bill. Only a few people locally seemed to know he was 'a bit 'well off' and only I and maybe Alistair Dougan knew that he was seriously wealthy - the more I thought about it the more sensible that seemed. Luckily that fitted with Bill's plans for business in the city for the morning followed by a free afternoon.

How do the unemployed and unemployable cope with all that time? I lasted until 10 am before catching the bus into town wearing Litara's idea of a hoodie . My plan was a visit to the library but a quick visit to see Kelly resulted in me lying flat on my back in the upstairs salon being used as a model for eyebrow shaping and eyelash extensions It seems that Monday mornings, being quiet, were used by the staff to practice on each other. Kelly swore it was the teacher who 'did me' as a demonstration and maybe to entice me to become a regular customer once I became rich and famous from the television show Kelly had dropped into conversation. Being pampered could be addictive but maybe its main attraction was to entertain the unemployed or unemployable rich. I wouldn't succumb except maybe for Christmas, and for Birthdays, and for… My visit to the library ended up being a bit rushed!

Bill was waiting at the café where he pulled out a seat for me and I sat with a thank you before realising how much we had both moved on in our reactions to each other since our first meeting when we launched Molly.

"Why me Bill? I'm not a blood relative and have no useful skills so why chose me for this job?"

"The fact that you call it a job shows my choice may have been a good one but it hasn't been my entirely free choice. By Calum MacLeod's rules the person who inherits has to be between 18 and 36 and single. They have to be willing to accept it and common humanity also rules out anyone whose life, I think, would be destroyed by the inheritance."

"Nothing about this is as simple as I thought when I accepted and I'm very tempted to walk away from the whole thing so please help me with it as much as you can. For instance your life appears to be pretty normal with most people not knowing about how rich you are…"

"Privacy was easier before the internet. For now anyone who googles Venus Williams will learn about an American tennis star but that won't shield you once you are on television. I live within my income not my wealth and that seems to help - big spenders tend to be better known for spending big than for what and who they care about."

Despite all my confusion about the inheritance my mind was beginning to go blank. "There's a lot more I need to know but just from what you've said so far… what happens if I die or you live beyond my 36th birthday?"