After my grandpa’s funeral, I didn’t tell my parents that he had left me $20M; I’m glad I kept it a secret, because a week later, what he revealed about their past… shocked me to the core.

00 the next morning.

I wrote it on the back of a grocery receipt simply because my hands needed something to do.

“Margaret,” I said, “my mother filed a probate petition. She’s claiming Grandpa died without a will.”

There was a pause.

The kind that told me she already knew.

“We’ll discuss that tomorrow,” she said.

“Bring the cedar chest.”

I put down the phone.

Grandpa’s watch continued ticking on my nightstand, steady as a heartbeat belonging to no one living.

I packed a bag, placed the cedar chest in