Mom turned to me.
“He would be ashamed of what you’ve done.”
For years, that sentence might have broken me.
Now I could hear Grandpa laughing at the ridiculousness of anyone claiming to know his mind better than I did.
“No,” I said.
“He left instructions.”
I thought the surprises were finished.
Then Nora asked us both to come to her office.
“There’s one remaining provision,” she said.
Chloe stiffened beside me.
“I’m not asking for anything.”
“I know.”
Nora placed an envelope on the desk.
It was addressed to both of us.
Inside was a letter, shorter than mine.
Girls,
I spent a long time thinking I’d saved one granddaughter and lost the other.
That was too simple.
Clara, you had a home with me, but you still grew up wondering why you weren’t wanted.
Chloe, you stayed with your parents, but I suspect you spent your life trying not to become the next child they left.
