“No.”
“I know that now.”
“Daniel asked you?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly did he say?”
Michael remembered.
“He said his father was dying and Linda would be humiliated if people knew.”
“He said you already struggled with her and knowing would destroy any possibility of relationship.”
Sarah laughed softly.
“So he protected her reputation from me.”
“Yes.”
“And you agreed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Michael looked older.
“Because your mother had been dead seven years, and I was afraid if I interfered in your marriage you would eventually see me as the difficult parent.”
Sarah stared.
That answer was painfully human.
Not good.
Human.
“You were scared I’d choose them.”
“Yes.”
“I chose them anyway.”
“For a while.”
Sarah’s eyes filled.
Michael reached across table, then stopped.
She placed her hand in his.
“You should have trusted me.”
“I know.”
“And I should have told you more.”
“About Linda?”
“About all of it.”
Michael nodded.
“Probably.”
Sarah sighed.
They sat in silence.
Then she asked:
“What happens to the house?”
“Nothing immediately.”
“You’re not throwing her out?”
“No.”
Sarah felt relief she did not expect.
Michael continued:
“Her occupancy license was never meant to be permanent.”
“Richard asked me to give her time.”
“I gave seven years.”
“My trustees have wanted to sell for three.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because you were family with her.”
That word.
Family.
Always carrying more weight than it deserved.
“What now?”
“I have directed counsel to begin ninety-day termination according to agreement.”
Sarah looked up.
“Because she hit me?”
“No.”
“Because of the false lien documents and unauthorized encumbrance.”
“That process started before Christmas.”
“That's why I was supposed to meet Daniel.”
Sarah remembered her father saying he was already coming.
“You were going to confront him on Christmas?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Christmas Day?”
“He asked.”
“Why?”
“Because he did not want Linda knowing before he spoke to me.”
Sarah laughed without humor.
“Of course.”
Michael continued:
“The assault changes nothing about property decision.”
“I don’t want you using the house to punish her for me.”
“I’m not.”
“Promise.”
“I promise.”
That mattered.
Sarah did not want to become Linda.
Power did not become moral merely because the person using it had been wronged.
Daniel moved out of the Lake Forest house within a week.
Not because Michael required him to.
Because he finally realized living with Linda would answer Sarah’s questions for him.
He rented a small apartment near Emma.
Linda was furious.
“You’re abandoning me.”
Daniel stood in the foyer of the house he had grown up in.
“No.”
“You are choosing her.”
“I am choosing my daughter.”
“And Sarah?”
Daniel looked at his mother.
“I should have chosen my wife years ago.”
Linda slapped the arm of the sofa.
“There. She has finally done it.”
“What?”
“She has convinced you I’m some monster.”
Daniel shook his head.