“Any mail from Catherine’s estate?”
There it was.
“I haven’t noticed anything important.”
He was quiet for half a second.
“Monday should finally settle all that.”
“I’m sure it will.”
He came home Sunday carrying a small airport bag and a story about Chicago weather.
Oliver ran to him.
Evan lifted him into the air, kissed his forehead, and looked over our son’s shoulder at me.
“Miss me?”
I smiled.
“You have no idea.”
That evening, he moved around our kitchen like a man whose life was completely under control.
He poured wine for himself and water for me.
He asked about my clinic.
He reminded Oliver to finish his vegetables.
He touched my shoulder once when he passed behind my chair.
I watched every gesture differently now.
Not because they were fake.
That was the terrible part.
Some of them probably weren’t.
People could love parts of you and still decide they were entitled to destroy the rest.
Monday morning, Evan left the apartment in his navy suit.
Before walking out, he kissed Oliver and then bent toward me.
I turned my cheek.
He paused.
“You okay?”
“Just tired.”
His eyes searched my face.
Then he smiled.
Pregnant.
Emotional.
Tired.
I could almost see him filing the moment away for later.
“Get some rest,” he said.
The probate hearing began shortly after ten.
Evan arrived expecting a routine recognition of Catherine’s amended will.
Instead, Catherine’s former lawyer was waiting with me.
The moment he saw us together, his stride changed.
Only slightly.
But I noticed.
He looked at me, then at her, then toward the firm’s managing partner sitting several seats away.
Madison entered a minute later carrying a legal pad.
Her face lost color when she saw me.
Evan recovered first.
“Claire,” he said quietly.
“What are you doing here?”
“It’s my aunt’s estate.”
“You didn’t need to come.”
“I know.”
That answer bothered him.
When the matter was called, Catherine’s former lawyer stood and asked the court not to recognize the amendment until questions about its authenticity and preparation had been resolved.
Evan objected immediately.
He called the challenge baseless.
He said Catherine had changed her intentions near the end of her life.
He said the amendment had been executed properly.
