What Diane didn’t know was that Dad hadn’t been the quiet, trusting widower she’d married three years ago. He’d been a tax attorney for thirty-one years, and he’d watched her the whole time. The morning after her ultimatum, I drove Lily to school, then went straight to Halverson & Pike, the firm Dad had used since before I was born. Old Mr. Halverson was already waiting with coffee and a thick manila folder. “He said you’d come,” he told me. “He said it would be within six months of the funeral. He was off by two.” Inside the folder was the real will, filed and sealed the week before Dad’s diagnosis. The house wasn’t in the estate Diane had been waving around. Dad had quietly transferred it into an irrevocable trust two years earlier, with me as the sole beneficiary and Lily as the contingent. Diane had been served notice; she’d signed for it herself and then buried it. There was also a forensic accountant’s preliminary report on the joint accounts she’d been quietly draining. That night I came home to find Diane and Trevor at the dining table with a notary, papers fanned out, pen uncapped, waiting. Diane smiled her cold little smile. “Ready to be reasonable, sweetheart?” I set the manila folder on top of her papers. “The house was never yours to offer. Neither were the accounts. Mr. Halverson will be by at nine tomorrow with the sheriff to inventory what you’ve taken, and a list of what you have seventy-two hours to vacate.” The notary quietly packed his briefcase and left. Trevor went pale. Diane’s hand shook so hard the wine spilled across the forged transfer she’d prepared. I picked Lily up off the couch where she’d fallen asleep waiting for me, kissed her hair, and carried her upstairs to the bedroom Dad built. Behind me, for the first time in that house, Diane had nothing to say.
