I pressed the paper to my chest and closed my eyes.
The floor was cold beneath me, but the ache in my chest swallowed it.
He had carried that all alone. And he never let it touch me.
It wasn’t about safety; it was about control.
The meeting at the attorney’s office was scheduled for eleven, but Aunt Sammie called me at nine.
“I know that your father’s will is being read today. I thought maybe we could walk in together,” she said. “Family should sit together, don’t you think?”
“You never sat with us before,” I said, unsure how else to answer.
“Oh, Clover. That was a long time ago.”
There was a pause — long enough to remind me she was still there.
“Family should sit together, don’t you think?”
“I just… I know things were tense back then,” she continued. “But your mother and I… we had a complicated bond. And Michael — well, I know you cared for him.”
“Cared?” I asked. “I adore him, Aunt Sammie. He was everything to me.”
Another pause.
“I just want today to go smoothly. For everyone.”
“I know you cared for him.”
When Aunt Sammie arrived, she greeted the lawyer by name and shook his hand like they were old friends. She kissed my cheek, and the smell of rose hand cream clung to my skin long after she’d stepped away.
