It made her useful, and honest at the last possible moment, and I have learned not to sneer at people who tell the truth late when so many never tell it at all.

“File the emergency protective orders,” I told Adeline, “and the petition for sole custody.

Tomorrow morning, first thing.”

Chapter 13 — The Name at the Bottom

“There’s one more,” Adeline said.

“You should see who built it.”

She brought up a master estate plan, electronically signed, the architecture under everything else — the trust, the residency waivers, the whole quiet machine.

I looked at the name at the bottom.