How she had looked after it.

How the mortgage had been paid off completely in September, every last dollar, and how a woman with a paid-off house and no husband to support should feel thankful.

“You paid the mortgage off,” I said.

“Every dollar.

That’s what I do, Elena.

I take care of things.”

I didn’t tell her that a paid-off house and an emptied account are two separate facts, and only one of them was sitting in my folder.

Toby started to fuss, and she carried him into the kitchen to warm his bottle herself, something she had never once done in eight years.