None of us had thought of those things as inheritance.
Margaret had.
“She tracked all of it?” Leah whispered.
“Yes.”
Daniel looked furious.
“So Nora gets a million-dollar property because she wiped Mom’s mouth?”
I stood.
Ethan stood too.
But I spoke first.
“No.”
Daniel looked at me.
“I did not know the land existed.”
“I did not ask for it.”
“I did not bargain for it.”
“And if you reduce twelve years of your mother’s final life to me wiping her mouth, that says more about you than it does about me.”
The room went silent.
I continued:
“She was lonely.”
“She was difficult.”
“She was funny.”
“She was terrified of losing control of her body.”
“She missed your father.”
“She hated oatmeal.”
“She cheated at cards.”
“She called Owen by Ethan’s name when she was tired.”
“She was a person.”
“Not a piece of property you failed to inventory correctly.”
