The maître d’ guided a tall woman in a charcoal suit to our table. Bradley’s smirk twitched. “Who is this?” Tasha hissed. “This is Diane Okafor,” I said. “She’s a partner at Sullivan and Cromwell. She handled Howard’s actual estate.” Bradley laughed, but it cracked in the middle. “Actual estate? Dad’s will is in probate. I’ve seen it.” Diane set a leather folder on the table. “You’ve seen a will Howard revoked fourteen months ago, Mr. Whitmore. After you tried to put him in that facility in Yonkers without Eleanor’s knowledge.” The color drained from his face. I kept my voice level. “Howard knew, Bradley. The night you visited him in the hospital and told him I was after his money — he had the nurse record it. He played it for me the next morning. Then he called Diane.” Diane opened the folder. “The brownstone, the Connecticut house, the Whitmore Foundation board seat, and the controlling shares of Whitmore Press are held in a trust. Eleanor is the sole trustee. Bradley, your distribution is contingent on a morality clause. Attempting to coerce, defraud, or declare the surviving spouse incompetent triggers full forfeiture.” Tasha’s wineglass trembled. “You can’t be serious.” “I have three witnesses tonight,” Diane said, nodding at the waiter, the sommelier, and the man at the next table — a retired judge and old friend of Howard’s. “Including a recording your husband consented to when he sat down.” Bradley lunged for the folder. I placed my hand flat on it. “Howard spent forty years building something good,” I said. “He didn’t leave it to a son who tried to bury him early. He left it to the woman who read to him every night until the end.” I stood, smoothed my cardigan, and looked down at the boy his father had hoped would grow up. “The car is paid through Sunday. After that, you’ll want to start packing. The brownstone you’ve been living in rent-free belongs to the foundation now — and the foundation just voted you out.”
