Chapter 7 — Who Did This

“Who did this to you?” I whispered.

Her tears spilled sideways against the pillow, silent, practiced — the crying of someone who had learned to do it without sound.

“Your mother and your brother,” she said.

“They forced me to sign everything over.”

Outside the window, my mother’s laughter drifted up from the patio, where she and Torsten were drinking champagne under the stars, celebrating a victory they believed was finished.