Not in the scheme of forty years.”

I got up from the table.

“I never mentioned four hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars to you, Patricia.”

The flame kept hissing.

She turned it down, then off, then turned around and smoothed her cardigan even though it was already smooth.

“Your lawyer told my lawyer,” she said.

“That’s how these things work.”

“You said the number before either one of them had filed a single page.”