“Everything in this room has already been handed over to her designated beneficiary, in accordance with her legal wishes.” It was then that Arthur’s eyes finally moved, following the direction of her glance, and landed on the desk in front of me, on the letter in my hand and the check beside it, and I watched the impatience on his face curdle, in an instant, into something much uglier.

Chapter 14 — Everything Has Been Handed Over

“What is he doing here?” Arthur said, and now he did look at me, pointing a finger across the office as if identifying a criminal.

“I know this man.

He was a paid actor.

I hired him to keep her quiet, to sit in her room so she’d stop embarrassing me.

He is a hired employee, nothing more.” He turned back to the director, his voice rising.

“Whatever is on that desk belongs to my mother’s estate, which means it belongs to her family, which means it belongs to me.”