Carlota Amlia had a bright academic future ahead of her as a medical anthropologist. She was a Ph.D. student at Harvard, with a fellowship providing full-tuition, books, and yearly living allowance of $35,000 plus health care. She had a year left on her dissertation, and she was planning on graduating in May 2021. Her advisors fully expected that she would receive multiple and fantastic job offers at leading universities around the world.

Carlota's step brother, Reinoldo Lorenzo, had, in late 2018, started a new IT support company, DopeTech.com, and was incredibly busy and in debt, though he had hopes of becoming wealthy. He and Carlota were very close as children and remained close into adulthood.

Unfortunately, in July 2020, Carlota's step father (Reinoldo's father), Po Lorenzo, contracted a virulent form of terminal cancer, and he needed near constant care and support for the remaining months of his life.

In late July, Carlota and Reinoldo had a lengthy conversation about the options. Because Po did not have any money himself, and because neither of them had any money to speak of, paying for third party care was not an option. Besides, both loved Po dearly and neither wanted to leave his hospice to strangers. During this conversation, Reinoldo said,

Carlota, I know that it is entirely unfair to ask this of you, but if you will postpone your academic career and care for our father, I promise you that I will make it up to you. You know how passionate I am about my new business, and we are on the verge of a few really big deals. I am going to be successful. You know that. Very successful. It's so much to ask. Too much. But I promise you that I will more than make up for the year or so that you'll lose if you do this. I'll cover your fellowship at Harvard and give you a very generous living allowance in addition. And, for the years after you graduate, I'll make sure that you are very comfortable. Please, Carlota.

Trusting her step brother and loving her step father as she did, Carlota agreed. She took a leave of absence from Harvard, which required that she abandon her fellowship. She moved in with Po and cared for him. Reinoldo was unable to visit much, as his business had become wildly successful, but he regularly sent gifts and small amounts of monetary support to Po and Carlota. In December 2020, Po passed.

The holiday season was hard, of course, for Carlota and Reinoldo. They tried, however, to think about the future and to get back on track with their lives. Reinoldo shared with Carlota that DopeTech.com had just sealed the deal on an IT Support agreement with the NFL, which was worth over $100 million over the next ten years. Carlota was overjoyed for her stepbrother. So, on New Year's eve, at a small gathering of family and friends, they celebrated. After a few hours of the two of them daydreaming about all the ways that his company could continue to grow and he could spend his new-found wealth, Reinoldo asked if Carlota was ready for him to fulfill his promise from July.

"'Sis, you have done so much and given up so much." At that point, he took out a pad of paper and wrote the following:

In gratitude and recognition of her sacrifice and love for her family, I, Reinoldo Lorenzo, promise to pay for Carlota Amlia's final year at Harvard, including providing her with a $200,000 living allowance for that year. I also promise to provide Carlota with $500,000 a year after that for five years for a total of $2.5 million. Carlota has been a rock for me and for our family. This note represents my entire commitment to Carlota with respect to her diligent and loving efforts in caring for our father.

Both Carlota and Reinoldo signed this piece of paper.

Once again, however, life took an unfair swerve for Carlota and Reinoldo. On his way home from the New Years eve gathering, Reinoldo's car was struck by a drunk driver, killing him instantly.

Over the next few weeks, it came to light that Reinoldo's business was currently worth over $15 million, but because its success was so new, Reinoldo hadn't updated his will. His will, which was over three years old, left all of his assets to his now ex-spouse, Karen Garmon. He and Ms. Garmon had finalized their divorce over four years ago.

It is now February 2021. Carlota has come to your law firm for advice. Assume that the wills and estates issues are being addressed by a different attorney. You have been asked to evaluate the following:

Assuming that the will is upheld and that Ms. Garmon receives all of Reinoldo's assets, what contractual bases, if any, does Carlota have to recover some portion of those assets? In other words, can Carlota legally enforce any or all of Reinoldo's promises to her?

Write a case brief no more than 1,500 words long.