The investment accounts went to my mother.

The jewelry went to Chloe.

Item by item, the estate was carved up and handed to the three people who had not once, in six months, climbed the stairs to sit with the man who’d earned it.

Then Mr.

Steadman came to the end of the list.

“And to Genevieve,” he read, “a cedar music box, and its contents.” There was a silence.