“The will is properly drawn up and that money your mother in law gave David does not make her a partner.” Diane told me. She explained that without a partnership agreement, Martha was just an unsecured creditor who would be last in line for any payments.
I should have felt relieved but I did not because I did not want to spend years in court while Zoey grew up amidst lawsuits. I asked Diane for a few days to think before making a final decision.
That night I went to David’s office and opened the door with the key I still had on my keyring. I was greeted by the scent of his cologne and the sight of his jacket still hanging behind the chair.
I sat in his place and opened the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet where I found a sealed manila envelope. On the front, in David’s slanted handwriting, it simply said my name.
Inside the envelope was a letter written five weeks before he died. He confessed that for months he had been suffering from chest pressure and episodes he had tried to ignore.
He eventually went to a cardiologist and received a brutal warning that something could go wrong at any moment. He did not tell Martha or Spencer because he only wanted to protect me.