When she flipped it over to open it, she saw it was one of the envelopes that piggybacked onto the IoT to tell FedEx—and therefore the sender—that it’d been opened. For a moment she wondered whether she should call her lawyer before she opened it. To hell with it, she decided, ripping open the tab.
The papers inside were typically hard to read legal mumbo-jumbo, but as best Grace could tell Carl was requesting that the courts declare Simone legally dead, thus activating her will. I thought they couldn’t do that for seven years! Grace thought with alarm. As she read further, she found more obscure language that seemed to indicate the seven-year rule was only for missing persons. This complaint was angling to have her declared dead sooner on the basis that she wasn’t missing, but she was without heartbeat or respiration, i.e. dead.
There was stuff acknowledging the contention that she was alive but in stasis, followed by a plea to the court that any such claim be tested by reversing the stasis. Whereupon, if we can’t cure her, she’ll quickly die and prove their contention! Grace realized. Her brother’s essentially trying to murder her!
She sat, wondering why he would do this when he and his daughter had been written out of Simone’s most recent will. Even if he could overturn the newest will, they wouldn’t get very much money… Would they? She finally forced herself to open the financial file Simone had left her. There she found a list of accounts and her wife’s passwords—something she’d only expected to ever look at if Simone was dead.
It felt like giving up.
A few hours later, she sat stunned by the secret Simone had been hiding from her. Simone’s “little trust fund” that she’d occasionally “raided” to buy them a few nice things turned out to be worth about eight million dollars, depending on the status of the stock market. Simone had always implied that even though they wouldn’t be covered by insurance, her trust fund could afford a very expensive new cancer treatment like Arvinzamab if it was likely to work. Grace had thought she could only afford one such therapy. Grace had been estimating the trust fund at over a hundred thousand dollars but not over three hundred thousand.
Grace thought, I guess now I know why Carl and Kary are interested in getting fifteen percent shares of Simone’s estate. She frowned to herself, Though Carl must’ve gotten the same kind of trust from their parents as Simone did. Then Grace thought of Carl’s expensive cars, vacation home at the beach, and mini-mansion. Do you suppose he’s already run through his own inheritance?
With a sigh, she started scanning in the legal documents while mentally composing a letter to Albert Smythe, her lawyer.
Grace had finished the letter but put it aside for a re-read in an hour when her earbud chimed, “You have a call from Dr. Will Jonas.”
Wondering why he’d call out of the blue, Grace said, “I’ll take it… Dr. Jonas?”
“Hi, Ms. Penn,” Jonas said. “I have some news if this isn’t a bad time?”
“No, please, go ahead.”
“I just wanted to let you know that the FDA’s approved Arvinzamab for treatment of ovarian cancer on a compassionate use basis.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Well, that Simone could get approved for treatment using Arvinzamab, even though it hasn’t completed the trials. This would be on the basis that she’s dying and it’s worth taking a risk with an unproven treatment. However, the fact that they’ve approved it for compassionate use means that early trial data suggests it’s working, even though they’ll want more data before they’ll fully approve it.
“Now, I’m telling you this because normally I’d be telling Simone about the possibility of such treatment, since without stasis or Arvinzamab her survival would be expected to be… limited. Therefore, if I were her, I’d want to know about the possibility of undergoing a promising though unproven treatment since the likelihood of death without it would be pretty certain. On the other hand, she’s in stasis and seems safe there. So, in her case, I’m not encouraging that you or she do anything. I’m just wanting you to be aware that the option’s out there now.” He paused, presumably to let Grace ask questions. When none were forthcoming, he said, “So, in short, I’d recommend that Simone stay in stasis until Arvinzamab’s fully proven. I only wanted you to know that things are looking up for getting her treated.”
Grace said slowly, “Thanks for letting me know.” Feeling like she was airing dirty laundry, she said, “Um, I just learned Simone’s brother’s trying to get her declared dead in hopes of collecting on her will.”
“That’s… despicable!”
“Yeah… I’m letting our lawyer know in hopes something can be done.” She produced a desolate chuckle, “Simone wrote Carl out of her will so he not only has to get Simone declared dead but then he’d have to get her most recent will thrown out.” She sighed, “But if Carl does manage to force a destazing, how long would it take for you to get Arvinzamab for Simone?”
“Days at least, so if there’s any chance it’s going to happen, be sure to let me know as soon as you can. We’ll try to get it before she’s destazed.”
“Thanks,” Grace said, suddenly tired, “I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I appreciate your support.”
Jonas heatedly said, “I think having her destazed when we’re not ready to treat her would be homicide. Keep that thought in your back pocket in case he pushes too hard. I’d be happy to testify to that assertion. Meanwhile, I think I’ll go ahead and file the paperwork to get her declared a candidate for compassionate use.”
“Thank you.”
***
Kate Warren watched Kaem Seba perform another flawless kata. She shook
