been discussing it my whole life. You just didn’t know I was listening.”
Ryan leaned closer and lowered his voice.
“Dad would be ashamed.”
That was the moment I turned fully toward him.
“Do not use Dad,” I said. “He left a letter.”
Mom went still.
Inside my clutch was an envelope I had been carrying since that morning, when the estate attorney finally handed it to me.
Dad’s estate had taken years to close because Mom had spent two of them challenging one particular clause.
The adoption clause.
I
