I will carry part of you with me forever.
My fingers tightened around the phone.
My mother took it away.
“Stop.”
“I want to see.”
“It will destroy you.”
“No.”
I looked toward the dark window.
“They already tried that.”
My mother said nothing.
The next thing we checked was our banking.
My accounts were inaccessible.
Preston had reported my death to the bank before I had supposedly been buried.
He was moving quickly.
Too quickly.
Then I remembered the transfer.
“Fallow Bridge.”
My mother looked up.
“What?”
“The forty-two thousand dollars.”
We searched.
At first, nothing.
No obvious website.
No office.
Only a corporate registration six months old.
Fallow Bridge Consulting LLC.
Registered agent:
Marian Cole.
My mother stared at the name.
“Do you know her?”
“No.”
We searched Marian.
One result.
A probate consultant in another county.
Another result listed work involving
estate acceleration and disputed-beneficiary claims.
My mother and I looked at each other.
“This wasn’t about five hundred thousand dollars,” I said.
The phone in Deborah’s hand vibrated.
She glanced at it.
Preston.
She answered and put him on speaker.
Her voice instantly became exhausted.
“What?”
“Deborah, I wanted to make sure you got home.”
“I’m not home.”
“Where are you?”
“With family.”
A pause.
“I know today was hard.”
My mother looked at me.
I had never hated a voice the way I hated his.
Then he said, “Sabine is upset.”
My jaw clenched.
“My daughter is dead,” Deborah said.
“Forgive me if I am not concerned about Sabine’s mood.”
“She feels guilty taking the necklace.”
“She should.”
Another pause.
Then Preston lowered his voice.
“Did Renee ever talk to you about changing her will?”
My mother’s eyes sharpened.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Why?”
“Just paperwork.”
“Her body isn’t cold in the ground and you’re asking about paperwork?”
He quickly backtracked.
“That came out wrong.”
My mother let silence punish him.
Finally he said goodnight.
After she hung up, we stared at the phone.
“He’s looking for something,” I said.
Deborah nodded.
“The will.”
But my will was simple.
Preston received most of my personal assets.
My mother received certain family jewelry.
Sabine received several sentimental items.
