Chapter 18
I was standing at my kitchen window, looking at the garden my husband had planted the year before he got sick — the raised beds he'd built from cedar planks, still holding their shape after seven years.
"Thank you, Patricia."
"There's one more item." Her voice shifted slightly.
"The management company — Pend Oreille Property Solutions — is dissolved as of this morning.
Richard Hale signed the dissolution papers as part of the settlement.
The vacation rental listing has been removed from all platforms." She paused.
"And I received a signed acknowledgment from both Richard and Connor Hale confirming the management agreement was unauthorized and the signature was not yours."
"They put that in writing."
"They did.
It's part of the settlement." Another pause.
"It wasn't easy to get them to sign it.
Connor's attorney pushed back.
But I held the line."
I thought about Connor in his golf shoes on my entryway tile, leaning forward with his easy smile, asking what it would cost to make this go away.
It had cost him exactly this.
The admission in writing.
The money returned.
The acknowledgment that none of it had ever been his to take.
"The sale," I said.
"Has any of this affected the sale?"
"Alan Mercer's attorney contacted me last week," Patricia said.
"He was aware there had been some complications around the property.
I provided a clean title confirmation and the dissolution of the management agreement.
His attorney was satisfied." A brief pause.
"Dr.
Mercer's offer came in yesterday.
I was going to call you about that separately."
"How much?"
She told me.
I set my hand on the windowsill.
It was above asking price.
Not dramatically, but meaningfully.
Dr.
Mercer had seen the property twice in the condition it was in — the honest bones, he had called them — and he had offered more than I had hoped for.
May you like
"Tell his attorney yes," I said.
"I'll prepare the acceptance today."
