I left work at my normal time.
Before going home, I stopped at the Lincoln condo.
I had not slept there since my mother died.
The place still held traces of her choices.
The pale kitchen tiles she had insisted were easier to clean.
The narrow bookshelf she said made the living room look taller.
A ceramic bowl by the door where she always dropped her keys.
I stood in the silence and understood why she had been so stubborn about the deed.
She had not been predicting David.
She had been protecting choice.
I packed an overnight bag from a few things I kept there, then drove to the house David and I shared.
His car was already in the driveway.
He opened the front door before I reached it.
“Chloe.”
He looked terrible.
His shirt was wrinkled, his hair was disordered and he was holding my phone.
For one second, seeing him there with my device while I held his felt almost absurd.
He stepped forward.
“Thank God.
Give me my phone and let me explain.”
I stayed outside.
“What was the anniversary dinner for?”
His face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
“What?”
“The dinner.
The one where you were going to talk to me about our financial future.
Were you planning to ask me to add you to my mother’s condo?”
David rubbed his forehead.
“Chloe, I have asked you about that before.
Married people discuss assets.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
He exhaled sharply.
“Yes.
I was going to bring it up.
But not because of Sarah’s stupid fantasy.”
“What was your reason?”
“Security.
For both of us.”
I nodded.
“And after your name was added?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation ended more of my marriage than Sarah’s phone call had.
“Eventually,” he said, “we might have talked about selling it.
We don’t use it.
It’s sitting there while we could build something bigger.”
“For your mother and Sarah.”
“For us.”
“With Sarah’s spa in the basement.”
His mouth tightened.
“She talks.
You know how she is.”
“And your mother moving in?”
“That wasn’t decided.”
“And the Naperville listings?”
