And, apparently, purchase the $600,000 colonial house she had already toured twice.
White pillars.
Black shutters.
A spacious sunroom she had described as “exactly what I need to recover emotionally.”
I knew because the night before the funeral, I had seen the property listing open on Ethan’s laptop.
He hadn’t even bothered to hide it.
Later, at the luncheon following the burial, Ethan sat beside me while his relatives chatted and laughed around the buffet tables.
“The will reading is tomorrow at ten,” he said quietly. “Try not to embarrass me by getting overly emotional.”
I slowly turned toward him.
“My father died four days ago.”
“And my family has been buried in debt for years.”
His smile never disappeared because several people were watching us.
Beneath the table, however, his fingers tightened around my wrist.
“You’re my wife,” he whispered. “Anything you inherit belongs to both of us.”
Before I could answer, Marjorie appeared over my opposite shoulder, bringing with her the heavy scent of rose perfume and face powder.
“Sweetheart,” she murmured, “grief makes people impulsive. You should let Ethan manage the financial decisions until you’re thinking properly again.”
I looked from one of them to the other.
My husband was gripping my wrist.
His mother was talking to me as though I were incapable of making adult decisions.
For three years, both of them had mistaken my quiet nature for helplessness.
Because I kept the books for Dad’s repair shop, wore simple clothes, and drove his aging blue pickup, Ethan’s family assumed I understood nothing about money, investments, property, contracts, or manipulation.
Dad had known better.
And more importantly, Dad had understood Ethan and his family far more clearly than they ever suspected.
Two months before his condition worsened, Dad called me into his office and asked me to gather every financial statement, property deed, account document, and security record connected to the business.
Then he handed me his old phone.
At my father’s funeral, my husband leaned toward me and calmly remarked that my inheritance could finally erase his family’s financial problems. His mother had already picked out a $600,000 house she expected the money to purchase.
