“She said that would be your decision.”
Ethan was stunned.
Then hurt.
That surprised me.
Not angry at me.
Hurt by his mother.
“She left nothing to me?”
“She left some personal things in her will.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
We sat in the car.
He stared through the windshield.
“I was her son.”
“I know.”
“I loved her.”
“I know.”
“I worked in Bellhaven because somebody had to keep this house running.”
“I know.”
His voice broke.
“Did she think I abandoned her too?”
I took his hand.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she wrote about you.”
Margaret’s letter had another page.
She said Ethan had given her something different.
A home where she was allowed to stay.
A son who never asked Nora to send her elsewhere even when care became difficult.
She also wrote:
Ethan already shares a life with Nora. If Nora is protected, my son is not abandoned. But I want this gift to belong to the woman who never had a legal obligation to stay.
