Chapter 26 - MARK’S LAST CONVERSATION WITH MARGARET
Margaret was eighty-two when she developed heart failure.
Mark visited.
Lily, then twenty-three, chose not to.
Margaret asked him:
“Do you think Gerald loved you more because he chose you?”
Mark answered:
“No.”
“Less?”
“No.”
“What then?”
“He was my father. Adoption wasn’t a ranking.”
Margaret cried.
“I wish I understood that younger.”
“So do I.”
She died months later.
No final secret.
No hidden will.
No last attempt to redirect shares.
Her estate followed documents everyone had already seen.
Lily received a small fixed bequest and Margaret’s pearl earrings.
No condition.
Lily kept neither.
She gave the pearls to Chloe.
“Why?” I asked.
May you like
“She likes them.”
Objects finally became simple.
