“Yes, I have.”
“When?”
“While you were giving them away.”
A sound escaped someone near the fireplace.
It might have been a cough.
It might have been a laugh quickly strangled into a cough.
Dad heard it too.
His cheeks flushed.
“You think wearing that uniform means you can disrespect me in my own house?”
I glanced down at my dress blues.
“No.
I think Grandma’s signature means you can’t give away her property in yours.”
He stared at me.
Mom closed her eyes.
Ryan pushed both hands through his hair.
“This is insane.
I’ve already been planning around those houses.”
I turned to him.
“You planned around something you didn’t own.”
“Dad said—”
“Dad wasn’t Grandma.”
That finally silenced him.
Mr.
Hollis resumed the reading.
He explained that the deeds had been properly recorded months before Margaret’s death and the trust amendment had been executed at the same time.
The three properties would pass according to the trust terms once the administrative steps were completed.
Dad could challenge the documents if he chose.
Mr.
Hollis did not threaten him or dramatize the possibility.
He simply made the position clear.
“If you believe there is a legal basis for a challenge, you should speak with independent counsel,” he said.
“Until a court says otherwise, these are Margaret’s controlling documents.”
Dad looked as if he wanted a different answer through force of personality alone.
He did not get one.
Ryan sat down again.
Brooke remained standing for another moment, then moved to the opposite end of the sofa.
It was a small movement.
I noticed it anyway.
Dad noticed everything now.
The silence of his friends.
Ryan’s panic.
Brooke’s distance.
Mom’s refusal to look at him.
The certified deeds lying on the table like three quiet witnesses.
His entire speech had been built on the assumption that possession was already settled.
Margaret had settled it herself.
Mr.
Hollis finished the reading nearly forty minutes later.
Nobody cheered.
People collected coats and purses.
Wine glasses were abandoned half-full.
Dad’s business friends suddenly remembered early mornings and long drives.
One by one, they left.
The living room emptied until only family remained with Mr.
Hollis.
Ryan cornered me near the hallway.
