PART 1

For three weeks, I had reshaped my entire life around an elderly neighbor whose own family had barely remembered she existed.

What nobody knew was that every night at exactly nine o’clock, I sat beside her bed and confessed the same regret I had carried for years.

And when I finally learned why Susan understood that regret better than anyone else, everything I believed about my past changed.

“You’re after her HOUSE!”

Susan’s nephew, Greg, was shouting from my front porch loudly enough that several neighbors had already come outside to watch.

“You moved a dying woman into your home because you want her savings! We’re calling the police today!”

I stood in the doorway, gripping the frame and trying not to lose my temper.

Susan was sleeping in the spare bedroom behind me.

At least, I hoped she still was.

Her family had not visited her in five years.