“Your father would never sell this land for development,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. “And I didn’t sign anything.”
“You don’t need to,” Brandon explained with practiced patience. “The business was in Dad’s name. The house, too. Pennsylvania isn’t a community property state.”
I knew then that they had planned this—not just after Nicholas fell ill, but perhaps before. How long had my son been waiting for his father to die so he could liquidate our life’s work? How many times had Melissa called, not to check on Nicholas’s health, but to make sure their plan was still in motion?
“I need time,” I said, standing up. “I’m going to bed. We’ll discuss this tomorrow.”
But there would be no discussion.
While I lay awake in the bed I’d shared with Nicholas, staring at the ceiling and listening to the familiar creaks of our old farmhouse, my children were making their final preparations. Morning came with the smell of coffee, the expensive kind Brandon had brought from Boston because our local store brand was “undrinkable.” I dressed slowly, my joints stiff with grief and age and the cold knowledge of what my children had become.
