Cassie looked up at the water-stained ceiling of her motel room and felt a hysterical laugh bubbling up in her throat. “Just how much money are we talking about, Mr. Schmidt, because I am currently sitting in a room that smells like bleach and desperation?” she asked.
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line followed by the soft rustle of paper being turned. “After the various international estate taxes are settled, the liquid assets total approximately nine hundred million dollars,” Hans said.
He went on to list a portfolio of luxury properties in the Swiss Alps, a historic vineyard in France, and a controlling interest in a global logistics conglomerate. The phone slipped from Cassie’s hand and bounced off the carpeted floor before she scrambled to pick it back up.
“This has to be some kind of elaborate prank or a cruel trick being played by my ex-husband,” she stammered into the receiver. “I assure you this is quite real, but there is a strict legal condition that must be met in order for the transfer to occur,” Hans continued.