“The anniversary made me think.”

“I knew it. You’re angry about the money.”

“I’m not asking you to change the will.”

“Then why are you doing this now?”

Mark looked at her quietly.

“I had an opportunity I kept turning down because you and Dad wanted me close. I finally decided to take it.”

Patricia pushed the folder back.

“We never told you to give up your career.”

“No,” he said. “You just told me you needed me here every time I had the chance to leave.”

Richard shifted. “That’s not exactly fair.”

Mark nodded.

“Maybe not.”

That was what made the argument strange.

He wasn’t trying to win.

There was no dramatic speech, no shocking confession, no overturned table.

Just twelve years of small assumptions sitting beside the leftover pot roast.

Chapter 3

That night, Susan called me.

Patricia had apparently told her that Mark was moving because of the inheritance.