My father looked up. “Thirty days?”
“Yes.”
My mother whispered, “She wouldn’t.”
Evelyn closed the folder.
“She already has.”
For a moment, no one breathed.
Then Brent said the thing he always said when he was losing.
“I’ll sue.”
Evelyn smiled faintly.
“I was hoping you would mention that.”
She removed a smaller envelope from the tin box and held it between two fingers.
“This is a copy of the letter Rose Callahan wrote before she died. She left instructions with me because she suspected certain truths were being hidden from Julia.”
My mother lunged for the envelope.
My father caught her wrist.
“Margaret,” he said, and his voice broke.
My mother froze.
Evelyn opened the envelope herself.
“Rose knew Julia had saved this house. She knew because David told her.”
My father lowered his head.
“She also knew Margaret and Brent had been telling relatives that Brent was the one who kept the family afloat.”
