Martin advised us to freeze changes wherever possible while the documents were investigated.
By evening, I felt as though Patricia and I had spent the day building a fence around a house that had always felt safe.
Then Geoffrey called.
This time, I answered.
“Dad.”
“Geoffrey.”
A pause.
“You sound strange.”
I almost laughed.
“You called me.”
“I know. I wanted to talk about yesterday.”
“Go ahead.”
He sighed.
“Allison is upset.”
I looked across the room at Patricia.
She could hear his voice faintly through the phone.
“About what?”
“You showing up unexpectedly.”
“I was invited.”
Another pause.
“Allison thought Mom told you dinner was postponed.”
“She didn’t.”
“Well, there was confusion.”
“Apparently.”
Geoffrey sounded tired.
Not defensive.
Not angry.
Just tired.
For the first time, I wondered whether the financial strain had been worse than we realized.
“Dad, can we not make this bigger than it is?”
