Woman Unexpectedly Inherits over $500K, Decides to Find Out Why

After a man died, his wife was shocked to discover that he only left $100 to her despite owning an estate worth at least $500,000. Upon further investigation, she learned he had given his entire wealth to another heir.

The woman talked to the other heir and asked her to share the money with her and her kids. She believed her family deserved it. However, the other heir refused. It seemed like there was no way the woman could get the money, but she didn't want to let another woman take her husband's wealth since she had no other source of income.

Before jumping to the main story, Redditor Emotional_Payment_66 talked about her childhood. The 21-year-old woman spent it with her mother because her father had abandoned them when she was two.

However, she didn't enjoy living with her mother because she was always busy working. The little girl had no one to talk to while growing up.

When she turned 11, her mother suddenly passed away, so her grandmother took her in. She confessed it was much better to live with her grandmother because of the "healthier environment."

Seven years later, her grandmother received a call from an unknown number. She heard the girl's father's voice on the other end when she answered it.

After disclosing what OP would inherit, the woman asked her to split the inheritance equally with her and her children.

The man who had abandoned her when she was two wanted to reconnect with her, but it was clear she didn't want to talk to him. She immediately told her grandmother that she wouldn't meet him or speak to him.

After hearing her response, the man said he wanted to talk to his daughter because he didn't have much time to live due to prostate cancer. He also revealed that he had married another woman but didn't have children with her.

OP's grandmother passed her father's message to her, but she never contacted him. It was only after three years that she heard about her father again.

One day, she received a call from an unknown number and heard an unfamiliar feminine voice from the other end. It was her late father's wife telling her about his will. OP recalled:

"He made me the beneficiary of his life insurance $100,000, left me his savings, $35,000, and his house, which in this market I could sell for around $400,000."

After disclosing what OP would inherit, the woman asked her to split the inheritance equally with her and her children. Since she had left her job after moving in with OP's father, she didn't have a source of income and heavily depended on his assets.

OP refused, saying her father had abandoned her, so she never got anything from him. His estate was the only thing she received from him, so there was no way she would share it with the woman and her children.

When OP contacted the lawyer handling her father's case, she felt terrible for his wife because he only left her and the kids $100 each. She turned to Reddit to ask other Redditors if she should feel guilty.

"NTA. You don't know his wife. You don't owe her anything," Redditor Even_Speech570 stated. The Redditor added that OP didn't have to worry about anything because her father knew what he did by leaving them $100 each.

OP later edited her post and shared that she planned to lease her father's house via a property management company. She said that she didn't plan to kick her father's family out of the house, and she didn't want to sell the house right away.

She updated her post again after talking to her paternal grandmother, who revealed some family secrets. It turns out OP's father wanted to speak to her sooner than later, but his wife convinced him not to contact her. She didn't want him to be in contact with her at all.

Moreover, they weren't legally married. They didn't have a marriage license even if they had a wedding ceremony because they assumed OP's mother was alive, so her father was still technically married. He didn't contact OP's mother for divorce because his wife had convinced him not to.

Another secret that OP's grandmother revealed was that her father's wife was cheating on him and had deleted the proof so that he couldn't confirm his suspicions. "Personally what I think is that she never wanted me to be part of their perfect family," OP stated.

After reading her post, a lawyer commented that people "cannot legally disinherit their spouses in some states." But Redditor ElleHopper said this law wouldn't apply to OP's father because he wasn't legally married to the woman. The Redditor expected things to turn out differently in this case.

Meanwhile, most Redditors assured OP she wasn't at fault and didn't need to worry about her father's will. They explained that her father did what he thought was best.

Questions to Ponder:

Do you think OP should have talked to her father when he called her?

Had OP talked to her father while he was alive, she would have known why he left everything to her and not his wife. However, she resented him, so her decision not to talk to him was also valid. Do you think talking to him at that time would have helped her?

What would you do if you were OP?

After discovering that her father left $100 each to his wife and her children, she felt terrible. Part of her wanted to share the inheritance with them, so she asked other Redditors for advice. Like other Reddit users, some people might agree that OP should accept her father's decision and not share her inheritance with others. What would you do if you were in her place?

If you enjoyed reading this article, you might like this one about an old widower who lived in a dirty trailer and left a $5.4 million inheritance to a lady who wasn't one of his six children.