“I know.”
The attorney explained the procedure and sent me the required paperwork.
I signed it that afternoon.
The money was never mine to spend.
Then I called Nora.
“I refused the inheritance,” I told her. “The attorney has the signed documents.”
She was silent for a moment.
“After I threatened to report you.”
“I didn’t know about the money.”
“Refusing it now doesn’t prove that.”
“No. I know it doesn’t.”
“Then why should I believe anything you say?”
I had no answer that would make her trust me.
She had lost her sister, and I had become the person standing between her grief and an inheritance she believed should have remained within her family.
“I am sorry,” I said.
She hung up.
I drove to the hospital that morning, hoping that returning to my work would give me something familiar to hold on to.
Instead, Dr. Patel was waiting outside the ward.
