After losing my wife, I stayed silent about the second house and the $480,000 she left me. a week later, my son told me to get ready to leave. he didn’t know I had already prepared for something very different…..
The lilies from the funeral were only just beginning to wilt when the phone calls began. Barely two weeks after we laid Margaret to rest, I was standing in the kitchen when the phone rang.
“Dad, we need to discuss the property,” my son David said. His voice carried the sharp, transactional tone of a broker closing a deal. At 40, he wasn’t asking for permission.
“Good morning to you too, David.”
“Dad, we’ve got to be smart,” he continued, brushing past the greeting. “The house isn’t generating value. Selling is the logical step. We’ve already had an appraisal done.”
“There’s no mortgage,” I replied, something I had never told them.
He gave a short laugh. “Dad, come on. We know you’re under a lot of stress. The proceeds could go toward Mia’s college tuition and… well, everyone could benefit.”
I stopped paying attention. I could see him clearly in my mind, hunched over his laptop, the spreadsheet on his screen titled: Sale of Dad’s House, Expected Profit, Division of Funds.
Minutes later, the second call came. This time, my daughter Rachel.
“Dad,” she cooed, her voice sticky-sweet. “Just imagine! You’d be right here with us, in our guest suite. And with the equity from the sale, we could reinvest—for the good of the whole family. Think of it as securing everyone’s future. It’s a win-win.”
“Rachel,” I asked, “when was the last time you called me about anything besides money?”
“That’s not true,” she protested.
“It’s been nearly three months,” I said flatly.
I hung up. My eyes drifted to Margaret’s reading glasses, still resting on the half-finished novel by her chair. The ache in my chest pulled me toward her study. The air there still held the faint trace of her perfume.
I opened the bottom drawer of her desk, and my hand found a pale blue folder. On the cover was a yellow sticky note written in her familiar cursive: If you’re reading this, it’s time you knew what’s inside…
Full in the first c0mment ⬇️