For Seven Years I Sent Forty Thousand Dollars Every January, Until Emma Finally Spoke

“Mark filed this deed thirty days after Laura died.”

I looked at the county stamp at the top of the blue page.

The date read November 14, 2017.

“The Elm Street house cost three hundred thousand dollars,” Howard said.

“He walked into Oak Creek Bank on November fourteenth and wrote a single check to clear the title.”

My thumb dug hard into the gold band on my left hand.

Every January, I sat in my market office and signed away a small fortune.