They had told him, over and over, that no one would believe an old man who forgot things.

They had made sure he believed it too.

And then he told me the rest — that they had sold his lake cabin, the place my mother had loved, the place he’d meant to leave to both his children; that they had emptied two of his investment accounts; that they had made him sign a new will leaving everything to Julian.

He had tried to call me, twice.