Evelyn lifted the tin box.
“Julia asked me to say one more thing.”
My mother looked up.
Evelyn’s voice softened, but only slightly.
“She said she does not want you homeless. She does not want revenge. She wants distance, honesty, and safety for her children. What happens next depends entirely on what you do with the thirty days she has given you.”
My mother laughed, but it sounded almost like a sob.
“She sent you to scare me.”
“No,” Evelyn said. “She sent documents. I came because Rose asked me to, long before any of you imagined Julia would ever stop saving you.”
Then Evelyn walked out, taking the tin box with her.
Behind her, my father remained on the stair, holding a letter from his dead mother and staring at Brent as if he were seeing, for the first time, the exact shape of the son he had defended.
