The package arrived on a Wednesday, which was the day she had decided was the day she would stop accepting packages that were not addressed to her, and which was also the day she was in the office until 9 PM because the quarterly filing was due and because the filing was the reason she was alone in the building, and which was also the day the doorman had let the courier up because he knew her, or thought he knew her, or knew that a package had been expected, or had some reason that she would never understand, for allowing a stranger to enter the building with an envelope that was not sealed and that was not addressed to her and that was, when she opened it, in the empty office, at 9 PM, on a Wednesday, in the building that was supposed to be secure, not a package at all but a letter, and the letter was not from a friend.

The letter was from a law firm. The law firm was in Delaware. The letter said that she was the executor of an estate that she had never heard of, and that the estate was worth approximately eleven million dollars, and that she had been named as executor by a woman she had never met, who had died three weeks prior, in a nursing home in Wilmington, and whose name was not a name she recognized, and which she read three times before she understood that the letter was not a mistake, and that the being not a mistake was the thing that was going to take her the next eighteen months to understand, and which the understanding was what she was not prepared for, and which the not prepared was what the letter had been sent to produce, in the specific way that certain letters are designed, by the people who send them, to produce a specific response in the person who receives them, which was disorientation, and confusion, and the specific quality of attention that comes from receiving something that is impossible and that is therefore impossible to dismiss, and which the impossible was what she was holding, in the empty office, at 9 PM, on a Wednesday.

She did not claim the estate. She could not claim the estate, because the claiming required her to prove that she was who the letter said she was, and because the proving required documents she did not have and did not know how to get, and because the getting was complicated by the fact that the woman who had named her executor was a woman she had never met, and because the never having met was the thing that made the naming suspicious, in the way that all things are suspicious when they are impossible, and which the impossibility was what she spent three weeks investigating, before she discovered that the woman who had named her executor had been a client of the law firm that had sent the letter, and that the woman had been a client for twenty years, and that the twenty years had included the period during which the woman had been making investments, and that the investments had been the source of the eleven million dollars, and that the investments had been made, in some cases, through intermediaries that the woman had used specifically because she did not want her name on the documents, and which the not wanting was the thing that had led to the naming of Sarah as executor, because the woman had needed a person who was not connected to the investments, and who would not be found by the people who were looking for the money, and which the people who were looking were the thing that Sarah had not known about when she opened the letter, and which the not knowing was what the letter had been designed to change.

The people who were looking were the FBI. They found her eleven months after the letter arrived, which was eleven months during which she had been trying to disclaim the estate and had been unable to, because the disclaiming required the consent of the court, and because the court had not been willing to accept her disclaimer without a review of the estate’s assets, and because the review had revealed the nature of the investments, and because the nature was what the FBI had been investigating for two years, and which the investigation was what brought two agents to her apartment, on a Tuesday morning, to ask her questions about a woman she had never met and about an estate she had not claimed and about eleven million dollars that she had not spent and that she could not give away, because the giving required the court, and because the court was the thing she was still waiting for, after eleven months, and which the waiting was what the agents seemed to understand, in the way that people who investigate financial crimes understand the specific helplessness of the person who is caught in a financial crime without having committed one, and which the understanding was what made them less threatening than they might otherwise have been, and which the less threatening was what allowed her to tell them the truth, which was that she had never met the woman, and that she did not know why she had been named, and that she had been trying to disclaim the estate since the letter arrived, and that the trying was what she was still doing, and that the doing was the only response available to her, and which the response was not a defense. It was simply the truth, and the truth was that she was a person who had received a letter, and who had done nothing wrong, and who was caught in a situation that she had not created and that she could not escape, and which the agents listened to, and which the listening was what they did, and which the doing was their job, and which the job was to determine whether the truth she was telling was the truth, and which the determining was what they were doing, in her apartment, on a Tuesday morning, and which the doing took four months, and which the four months was the time it took to determine that she was telling the truth, and which the truth was what set her free, in the way that the truth sets people free when the truth is that they did not do the thing they were suspected of doing, and which the suspicion was what the letter had created, and which the creating was what letters like that do, when they are sent to the wrong person, and which the wrong person is what she was, and which the being wrong was what the letter had assumed, and which the assuming was what the woman in the nursing home had done, before she died, when she chose the name of the executor from a list of people she did not know, for reasons that had to do with the specific protection of the money, and which the protection was what the woman had been doing, for twenty years, in the way that people protect money when they have more of it than they can account for in ways that will survive scrutiny, and which the scrutiny was what the FBI was conducting, and which the conducting was what they were doing, in her apartment, on a Tuesday, and which the Tuesday was the day the letter arrived, and which the arriving was what the letter did, and which the doing was what the letter was, and which the letter was the beginning of the story, and which the story was what she was living, and which the living was what she did, for the eighteen months that followed, and which the following was what the story required, and which the requiring was what the letter started, and which the starting was what the letter did, and which the doing was what the letter was, and which the letter was the beginning of the end of the ordinary life, and which the ordinary life was what she had before the letter arrived, and which the before was what she was trying to get back to, when the agents left, and when the court finally allowed her to disclaim the estate, and when the disclaiming was what she did, and which the doing was the end of the story, and which the end was the beginning of the ordinary life again, but with the knowledge that the ordinary life is more fragile than it appears, and that the fragility is what the letter had demonstrated, and which the demonstrating was what the letter did, and which the doing was what letters do, when they are sent to the wrong person, and which the wrong person is what she was, and which the being wrong was what the letter had assumed, and which the assuming was what the woman in the nursing home had done, and which the doing was the protection, and the protection was the money, and the money was the eleven million, and the million was what the letter was about, and the about was what the letter said, and the saying was what the agents heard, and the hearing was what they did, and the doing was their job, and the job was to determine the truth, and the truth was that she had done nothing wrong, and that the doing was what she had not done, and which the not doing was what set her free, and the free was what she was, after the eighteen months, and which the being was what she had been before the letter, and which the before was what the letter interrupted, and which the interrupting was what the letter did, and which the doing was what the letter was, and which the letter was over, and the over was the beginning of the ordinary life, and which the ordinary life was what she went back to, on the day the court accepted her disclaimer, and which the accepting was what the court did, and which the doing was the end of the story, and which the story was what she lived, and which the living was what she did, after the letter, and which the after was what the letter made, and which the making was what the letter did, and which the doing was what the letter was, and which the letter was the beginning of the story of what happens when a letter arrives that is not supposed to arrive, and which the supposed to was what the letter violated, and which the violating was what the letter did, and which the doing was what the letter was, and which the letter was over, and the over was what she was, after eighteen months, and which the after was what the letter made, and which the making was what she went back to, the ordinary life, the life before the letter, the life that was there before the Wednesday, before the 9 PM, before the empty office, before the envelope that was not sealed, before the law firm in Delaware, before the woman in the nursing home, before the eleven million, before the FBI, before the eighteen months, before the story that the letter started, and which the starting was what the letter did, and which the doing was what the letter was, and which the letter was the beginning, and the beginning was the package, and the package was what arrived on a Wednesday, which was the day she had decided was the day she would stop accepting packages that were not addressed to her.