"So you chose the money."
"That’s what he says."
"You don’t believe him?"
"He’s kept Mom’s ring beside his bed for nine years. I think he wants to make things right, but something stops him."
"What did Claire do that was so terrible?"
"She married your son."
"Daniel?"
"She married your son."
"Dad wanted someone wealthy. Daniel fixed school buses. Dad called him a mechanic with no future, right in front of Claire."
"Daniel was the best man I ever raised."
"I know. Claire said so in her letter." Meredith hesitated. "There’s something else."
"What?"
"When I told Dad that Claire was dead, he just said, ‘I know.’"
"Dad wanted someone wealthy."
"He knew?"
"Apparently."
"I buried them with eleven people there. Not one from her side."
"I’m sorry."
"Where is he?"
"Room 412."
"Not one from her side."
"Stay here."
***
A thin, gray old man lay in the hospital bed with an oxygen tube under his nose.
