CHAPTER 14

SOPHIE

It had been six weeks—exactly forty-two days—since Papa died. Three weeks since we held his memorial service. Eighteen days since my loving siblings told me that I hadn’t been added to the will and about twelve minutes since I read the registered letter signed by my eldest brother’s lawyer telling me that I had thirty days to vacate our family home so they could put it on the market.

Three of the eight had come to visit me in the last couple of weeks. Or so they said, but honestly, they were clearly more interested in making sure the non-human contents of the home were doing okay. Everything was exactly as they all had remembered it the last times they visited. For my eldest sister, that was two years ago, for the sister closest in age to me, just a few days before Papa went into the hospital. They all took pictures. I wasn’t sure if it was to argue with each other about who was taking what or try to figure out if I’d taken anything that now belonged to the estate.

I hadn’t touched a thing that I didn’t normally touch. Papa’s clothes were still in his dresser and closet. His toiletries and medicine still in the bathroom. And his papers, books, and mementos still in and on his desk.

It was Sarah, my thirty-four year old sister who found the bank card with my name on it in the top desk drawer. She handed...