“David?” I whispered. “Sarah?”

Neither of them moved.
‘They already know, Ellen,’ Misty said, her voice dripping with pity. ‘They have known about us for five years. They have been coming to my house for Sunday dinners.

Richard bought David that new Ford truck last year. He paid off Sarah’s credit card debt. He did not do that with plant money. He did that with our money.’

I looked at my son. “Is that true?”

David finally looked at me, but his eyes were hard. “Mom, you and Dad hadn’t been happy in ten years. He was miserable. Misty made him happy. We just wanted him to have some peace.”

“And the money?” I asked. My voice was cracking. “The money I saved from my extra shifts? The money we were supposed to use to pay off the house?”

“He said you wouldn’t understand, Mom,” Sarah muttered, her voice very quiet. “He said you were just going to hoard it in the bank anyway. Misty actually let him live.”

I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to throw up right there on the mahogany table. My husband of thirty-one years had a whole second family. And my children, the babies I stayed up with when they had croup, the ones I went into debt for, had been eating dinner at her table while I was heating up leftovers in Mansfield.

They had lied to me. For five years.

Misty’s lawyer tapped the table. “Now, about the house. We will need you out by the first of the month. We have a buyer lined up. Cash. Misty wants to close quickly.”

I did not say anything. I could hear my own pulse in my ears. I looked down at the silver pocket watch.

I had brought it to give to David. I thought he would want his grandfather’s watch.

Arthur Crane suddenly stood up. He walked over to his filing cabinet. He did not look at Misty’s lawyer. He pulled out a thick manila envelope and sat back down.

“Arthur?” Misty’s lawyer said, his brow furrowing. “I believe the reading is concluded. We have the legal will.”

“Not quite, Mr. Vance,” Arthur said. He opened the envelope and pulled out a single sheet of blue-lined notebook paper. It was written in blue ink. “Richard called me to the hospital forty-eight hours before he passed. While you were at home taking a shower, Ellen.”

My heart did a strange, painful flutter.

“He was very lucid,” Arthur continued. “He knew what he had done. He knew what Misty had pressured him to sign three weeks prior. And he had a very specific plan. He signed this. I had it notarized by the floor nurse who has a notary commission.”