There was nothing wrong with that — they’d known our father differently than I had. I wasn’t offering to buy their shares because they were wrong to want the money.

I was offering because, for me, the money had never been the point. That was my choice, and it was just as much their right to judge the offer however they liked.

Chapter 9 — They Decide

Two weeks passed. Scott called once with questions about the financing, and I answered each one directly. Amber texted me twice, and neither message mentioned the house — which told me she was still thinking.

Then Scott called again. He’d spent time considering everything, he said, and had talked to a financial advisor, and in the end he admitted the truth: he needed the money now more than he needed future rent or the meaning the house held for me.

“I want to accept your offer,” he said.