our child. I guessed after the toast, the tea, the mornings you went pale. I booked the appointment so you would be cared for.”
The room became still.
Marlene’s mouth opened, closed, then opened again.
“That proves it,” she said, though her voice had thinned. “She trapped him. A baby, at his age.”
“He knew before I did,” I said. “He wrote it before he died. Read the date.”
Her brothers stared down at the floor.
The lawyer slid the page forward, but she would not touch it.
“You’re pregnant,”
