“The house, the estate, and controlling interest in my company go to my wife. My children will receive trust allowances, contingent on the conditions outlined. Any contest forfeits the share entirely.”
Marlene stood so quickly that her chair hit the wall.
“She manipulated him. He was sick, lonely, and she crawled into his life.”
For the first time, I did not lower my eyes.
“Maybe I said yes because I was tired of drowning,” I said. “But I would have stayed if he had lost everything. The box was the gift.”
She laughed, sharp and fragile.
“You expect us to believe that?”
I unfolded the letter and read one line aloud.
“I watched you refuse my check the night before the doctor called. You said you needed only me. You did not know you were carrying our child. I guessed after the toast, the tea, the mornings you went pale. I booked the appointment so you would be cared for.”
The room became still.
Marlene’s mouth opened, closed, then opened again.
“That proves it,” she said, though her voice had thinned. “She trapped him. A baby, at his age.”
“He knew before I did,” I said. “He wrote it before he died. Read the date.”
Her brothers stared down at the floor. The lawyer slid the page forward, but she would not touch it.
“You’re pregnant,” one brother whispered.
“Yes.”
The lawyer set the envelope down and gave me a small nod, the kind Russell used to give me across the breakfast table.
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