Letters to the Editor
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Why not take this slowly?
Assuming that a check will just come to her, the LW might want to take it and put it in CD or money market account for at least a year. She probably can't make a decision right now that is not motivated by either guilt or anger. And I don't think money should be handled with either of those mind sets.
We have no idea what grandma wanted. Maybe she left the money split up for tax reasons, maybe she did it for other reasons. We can't ask her. She's dead.
In a year or so when the LW is on her way to healing from the bad breakup she can review the idea of what to do with the money. It generally takes half the length of any relationship to heal from its demise. And by then she'll know whether or not she feels guilty or all right about keeping the money. Moral decisions are not exactly a black and white issue. There is a right way of acting in any situation, but I think it is arrogant to tell the LW what that "right" thing is. And if, in time, she still has lingering guilt, or just knows that she wants to hand over the money to the ex, cool. She can keep the interest, which means she'll get a little something out of it too.
This inheritance is not an engagement ring that the ex gave the LW, and she is obligated to return now that she has left him. Though I do have to wonder--if he'd left her would the critics tell her to keep the money?