At the closing table Brandon had asked me to add his name to the deed.

I had said no.

I dug further into the blue folder.

I took out a second sheet of paper.

Its corners were perfectly crisp.

It was a quitclaim draft from 2010, never signed.

Brandon had paid a lawyer to prepare the quitclaim less than a month after we bought the house.

He’d brought it over to the guest apartment and asked me to sign.