My mother did not respond within ten days. On the eleventh day, she called me and asked me to come to the house alone. No Marguerite, no lawyer. I agreed, and I went on a Thursday afternoon, and I found her in the library with the veil folded on the table and the bracelet in a small velvet box beside it.
She did not stand when I came in. She looked older than she had a week earlier. Not frail, exactly, but the way a person looks when they have spent several days not sleeping.
"Sit down," she said.
I sat. I did not touch the veil or the box.
"I have read the letter from your attorney," she said. "I have also read your father's trust, which I admit I had not read closely in years. And I have spoken with Arthur, who has advised me that your reading of the property schedule is correct." Sh
