Portia faced formal charges — grand larceny, breaking and entering, destruction of property.
Yvonne was investigated by state authorities for unauthorized access to financial databases.
The family’s standing evaporated overnight; the people who’d once flattered them pretended they’d never known their names.
Emerson filed for annulment before any property claim could begin, gave up his city apartment, and moved back, for a time, into his mother’s estate — not to be waited on, but to learn how to carry his own weight.
Rosalind did not open her door to him easily.
She set firm boundaries.
Every morning Emerson made the coffee.
He helped Edith with the house.
He worked with Edmund on the legal proceedings, and sat down to dinner with his mother without once mentioning inheritances.
One Sunday, she found him in Frederick’s old study, staring at a photograph of his father.