In what world would they be entitled to that money? 

Inheritance is one of those things that is not frequently discussed in polite society, and for good reasons. It’s kind of a morbid reality that fortunate young people can come into a great sum of money after the passing of their grandparents or parents. No aging person wants their kids and grandkids to be waiting around for them to pass away, hungry to get a piece of the fortune they’ve been building up over the years. Putting a monetary value on your relationship with your familial elders eats away at your soul. It’s best to try and enjoy the time you have with your elders for as long as you can, because once they’re gone, you’ll finally know that their presence was worth more than all the money in the world. 

If you come from a family without generational wealth, you might feel bitter about people who are able to finance their entire life on windfalls from inheritance. After all, someone who gets $2M from an eccentric uncle didn’t work hard to achieve their riches. Even if they had a close relationship with their late family member, that’s not tantamount to doing the amount of work it would take to make $2M from nothing. Inheritance only really benefits the people who were set up to succeed in society from the day they were born. A ton of people who receive inheritances had their college tuition paid for by their parents, grew up upper-middle class, and would’ve been well-off financially even without receiving life-changing amounts of money from a loved one beyond the grave. 

The truth is that nobody is entitled to anyone else’s money. It doesn’t matter how much they think they deserve that money. It certainly doesn’t matter how much extra money someone has to give. Any money that anyone gifts you should never be seen as some guarantee. The stepchildren in this story need to learn that lesson, because if they don’t, they’re going to have a long and bitter life ahead of them.