They swore they would contest the trust, break it, drag it through every court in the state.

But Fiona, who had spent a lifetime being underestimated, had been far too careful for them.

Her estate attorney had done his work with meticulous, almost tender thoroughness.

There were medical records establishing that she had been of entirely sound mind when the trust was drawn.

There were video affidavits, recorded years earlier, in which Fiona herself — clear-eyed, sharp, unmistakably present — explained her wishes in her own words, and stated plainly, for any court that might one day ask, that her children had chosen of their own free will to neglect her, and that Mabel, her daughter-in-law, was her true and intended heir.

She had anticipated every accusation they would make and answered each one in advance, from beyond the grave, in her own steady voice.