The funeral passed in fragments.
People kept telling me Thomas had spoken about me often.
That made me angrier than silence would have.
Afterward, I packed immediately.
I was closing my suitcase when David appeared in the doorway.
“Susan.”
“I’m leaving.”
“I know.”
He stepped inside carrying a thick envelope.
I looked at it.
“No. I don’t want—”
“You don’t know what this is,” he interrupted.
His expression sharpened.
“Did Thomas ask you to stay for his final week?”
I frowned.
“Yes.”
“And you stayed willingly?”
“Why does that matter?”
David placed the envelope on the table.
Then he looked directly at me.
“Susan… you walked straight into your father’s trap.”
My hand stopped above the envelope.
“What trap?”
David slid it toward me.
“He left very specific instructions.”
I didn’t touch it.
“And he knew exactly what you would do once you came here.”
My voice dropped.
“What? I don’t understand.”
David rested one hand on the envelope.
“He made sure you couldn’t reject what he set in motion without seeing it first.”
I finally opened it.
The first page wasn’t a check.
It wasn’t a deed.
It wasn’t even addressed to me.
It was a board resolution.
I looked at David.
“What is this?”
“The moment you completed the seventh day here willingly, the transfer became irrevocable. Most of Thomas’s estate now belongs to the foundation.”
I stared at him.
“Because I stayed?”
“Because you stayed.”
“And Caroline?”
“Caroline is provided for.”
I kept reading.
*A charitable foundation.*
*A residential transition program.*
*Scholarships.*
*Employment support.*
*Housing assistance.*
I stopped.
“What does this have to do with me?”
David pointed to a paragraph.
“Thomas left one board seat vacant.”
“No.”
“You haven’t heard the rest.”
“I don’t need to.”
I shoved the papers back toward him.
“He doesn’t get to abandon me and then assign me homework from the grave.”
David nodded.
“He knew you’d say that.”
That made me even angrier.
“Then find somebody else.”
“They can.”
I blinked.
“He never made acceptance mandatory,” David said.
“Then where’s the trap?”
He glanced toward the window.
“He required one thing before anyone else could permanently take the seat.”
“What?”
NEXT PAGE
