“She knew almost from the beginning.

Sit down.

It’s all right.

Read what she left you.”

I sat back down slowly, my mind reeling, rearranging everything I thought I had understood about those six months.

She had known.

All that time I had believed I was the one managing a deception, gently steering a confused old woman through her fog, and the truth was the exact reverse.

She had seen through me from the start.