Chapter 2: What Was Already in Motion
I didn't sleep that night.
I sat on the edge of the hotel bed with the deed in my lap, reading Julian's name — which appeared nowhere on it — over and over until my eyes burned.
At 6 a.m., my phone lit up.
It was Chloe.
I stared at her name on the screen for a long moment.
Then I answered.
"Clara, I need you to hear me out—"
"How long?" I asked quietly.
Silence.
"Chloe.
How long."
"...Two years."
Two years.
Leo had still been alive two years ago.
He had been sitting in his high chair eating cereal two years ago.
And the whole time, the two people he loved most outside of me were—
I set the phone down on the mattress without ending the call.
I could hear Chloe still talking, her voice thin and far away.
I picked up the deed instead.
Then my phone buzzed again.
A text from a number I didn't recognize.
*Clara.
This is Daniel Marsh — Julian's attorney.
He has filed an emergency motion to establish spousal interest in the property at 4814 Creekside Drive.
The hearing is set for Friday.*
Friday.
That was four days away.
I read the address.
My grandmother's house.
The home I had grown up visiting every summer.
The same walls that still held Leo's handprints from the last Christmas we spent there together.
Julian hadn't just wanted me out of the house.
He had been planning this before Leo was even g\*ne.
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