Caleb is a corporate real-estate developer now, a successful and, I am sorry to say, a rather ruthless one.

He had discovered that his father owned a valuable piece of commercial property downtown, the original building where the old tailor shop still stands, which is now worth a great deal of money.

And Caleb wanted it.” He paused.

“Under state law, if Julian died unmarried and without a will, the entire estate would automatically revert to Caleb, his only surviving child.

His son would inherit everything, and the first thing he intended to do with it was demolish the shop.” And I began, slowly, to understand that my strange little deathbed marriage had not been strange at all.