Chapter 23 - MARGARET’S DEATH
Margaret died at eighty-eight after complications from heart failure.
Grace was twenty-nine.
They had met four times in the final decade.
No full reconciliation.
No permanent estrangement either.
Margaret followed boundaries.
That mattered.
She left Grace pearl earrings.
Grace laughed.
“Every complicated grandmother leaves pearls.”
Maybe.
She kept them.
Objects are not guilty.
Margaret’s estate paid remaining restitution first.
Lawful assets distributed afterward.
No symbolic stripping.
Grace attended the funeral.
Bella too.
Connor.
Sabrina.
I went because Grace asked.
Sabrina and I stood in the same room for the first time in years.
No apology exchange.
No confrontation.
We nodded.
That was enough.
At the graveside, Grace held my hand.
“Do you miss her?”
“Sometimes the person she could be.”
“Me too.”
Margaret had taught Grace to bake once.
Had read stories.
Had also held her down for a camera.
May you like
Both were true.
Memory does not require acquittal.
