And nobody drafts that clause by accident.”

I asked who had drafted it.

She turned to the last page and read the firm name at the bottom.

“Dean Hollifield.” She made a small noise.

“He is not the estate’s lawyer.

He is your father’s.”

Part Twenty-Two: Forty-Eight Hours

I told Richard no on the nineteenth of November, by text, in four words, which was cowardly and which I would do differently.