PART 2
The lawyer paused.
The room was completely silent.
Patrice stared at him, her arms now resting loosely at her sides.
The other relatives leaned forward.
I couldn’t move.
Mr. Abernathy looked down at the document again.
Then he continued reading.
“To the young woman my daughter paid to pretend to be my granddaughter—yes, Patrice, I knew.
I knew by her second Sunday.
I am blind, not deaf.
I could hear the hesitation in her voice every time she called me Grandpa.
I could hear the guilt in her breathing when she thought she was deceiving me.
But I also heard something else.
She came every Sunday.
Not because she wanted my money.
Not because she wanted my house.
She came because she knew what it meant to be alone.”
My eyes immediately filled with tears.
Patrice looked down.
The lawyer continued.
“So I allowed the arrangement to continue.
