He had recognized the opening moves of an old game, and rather than confront her — which would only have driven the scheme underground — he had let her play, and quietly built the board so that she could not possibly win.

“She will step forward offering to take care of you,” he wrote.

“She will be kind.

She will be warm.

She will talk about your living arrangements, about how you cannot possibly manage alone, about how she only wants what is best for you.

And it will all be aimed at one thing: getting legal control of you and of everything we own.

The empty will is the bait that makes her believe the path is open.