“He didn’t want lawyers fighting over his money,” Elena continued. “He believed the right thing would be done quietly, without courts, without bitterness. He trusted you to do that.”
She looked down then, and I turned, scanning the church.
The priest wouldn’t meet my eyes.
Friends who had celebrated our anniversaries looked uneasy.
No one was on my side anymore.
If I argued now, it would look like I was trying to profit from a mistake. Elena had cornered me, but why? Was it possible she was telling the truth?
No one was on my side anymore.
I drew a slow breath.
“I would never go against Thomas’s final wishes. If he truly wanted you to get everything, then that’s what will happen.”
The room seemed to exhale all at once. Elena lowered her head, looking victorious in her white dress.
As I sat back down, my grief started to turn into a cold, hard knot of suspicion.
I watched Elena from the corner of my eye as the service continued. She kept checking her phone under the pew.
My grief started to turn into a cold, hard knot of suspicion.
When the final hymn ended, people began to rise. A woman I’d known for years touched my arm as she passed.
“You’re very brave,” she whispered.
“I just want the truth.”
I didn’t go to the reception hall with the others.
I slipped out a side door and walked straight to my car. I drove to the office of Thomas’s lawyer, Mr. Caldwell.
When I walked in, Mr. Caldwell looked startled.
