Heya! By the time the book starts most of that five million is gone. Some of it went to passports & paperwork, some to living expenses and traveling costs. But most of it Mary spent trying to cover their tracks. The first time Nathan’s people got close to her she invested in allies, paying some to stay quiet and others to redirect. Paying someone to lie to the Wesninskis–and, by extension, the Moriyamas, was expensive af.

She laid false tracks with dead ends via her family’s contacts and had to buy clean weapons every time she crossed a border. She also planned ahead–if there was a layover or an easy detour to a city she might want to come back to and use later, she’d leave a small stash of money in little hidey holes. Not much, but enough to act as an emergency fund.

When Neil comes to PSU he has about a quarter of a million on him and notes that tell him where those pockets of money are. He spends a good 80-100K replacing Andrew’s car and a bit of change on basic necessities like his bedsheets, cigarettes, and hair dye.

Originally Neil gave the remainder to Stuart and told him to bet all of it on the Foxes at finals. He knew they’d win, and he said Stuart could bring the winnings back to Ichirou Moriyama. The odds were so stacked against them he figured it’d replace what he and his mother had stolen from the Moriyamas in the first place. It wouldn’t get him clear of this but it’d be a gesture of goodwill and a smart way to clear the slate.

This time ‘round it’s a bit more .. frivolous? He spends a bit of it on a vacation for the Foxes and a bit of it on his roadtrips with Andrew. ((some of these roadtrips will eventually take them past the hidey holes, and Neil collects what his mother left behind so long ago.)) He starts buying Christmas and birthday presents for the Foxes.

He also has to buy a car his fourth year, because Andrew is going to graduate soon and take the Maserati with him. He intends to get something practical like an electric one or a hybrid that’ll give him good mileage and not be overly fussy, but he makes the mistake of bringing the cousins and Robin to the dealership with him. Nicky puts the chances of Andrew riding in a Leaf at a negative percent, so Neil is forced to reevaluate his options.

It’s half as expensive as Andrew’s car is, but it’s the most money Neil’s ever dropped on himself, and it takes him a while to get over that. It doesn’t matter that the FBI & Moriyamas are pretending they’ve moved on and haven’t bothered him in over a year; it doesn’t matter that he’s got one year left at PSU and is almost guaranteed to get a pro team immediately upon graduation. There is something dizzying, almost frightening, about owning something so big. Once that anxious gnawing in his stomach fades, the car ends up meaning more to Neil than he ever thought it would.

After he signs the contract for a pro team and knows his first checks will be on their way shortly, Neil donates whatever is left of his blood money to a safehouse for homeless youth in Baltimore. It is not one of Ichirou’s “charities”.