“Do you know how to make cinnamon peaches?”
I laughed through my tears.
“Sort of.”
“My mother made them when I was a little girl.”
I went to the kitchen.
I found a can of peaches, sugar, cinnamon, and some bread that was still good. It wasn’t exactly a restaurant recipe, but I did my best.
When I came back, Victoria tried two spoonfuls.
She smiled.
It was the first real smile I’d seen from her since I got home.
“It’s awful,” she murmured.
I stared at her.
Then she let out a little laugh.
“But it tastes like home.”
We both laughed.
Then she slowly lifted a hand and took off an old ring she almost always wore. It was from her years of service.
She placed it in my palm.
“They share your blood,” she told me, “but you’re my daughter.”
I couldn’t hold back.
I cried like I hadn’t cried in years.
Victoria never tried to replace my biological mother. She never asked me to call her Mom. She simply showed up.
She taught me to drive.
She came to my graduation.
She waited outside for hours when I sat for my Navy officer board.
When my father said my career was too hard for a girl, Victoria would answer:
“Leave her alone. If she wants to go far, let her go far.”
I squeezed her hand.
“I love you, Mom.”
It was the first time I’d ever called her that.
And the last.
She died shortly before dawn.
Peacefully.
With my hand in hers.
For several minutes I didn’t move.
Then I straightened the blanket, closed her eyes, and called the doctor.
I didn’t feel like screaming.
Only an enormous emptiness.
The woman my own family had treated like a burden had waited for me to come home so she wouldn’t have to go alone.
Patricia handled the legal paperwork and I handled everything else.
We decided on a small farewell.
Victoria’s old comrades came, along with two neighbors, her attorney, some people from the veterans’ association, and me.
My father wasn’t there.
Neither was Brandon.
Neither was Paige.
They kept posting photos.
In one, they were toasting in front of the ocean.
“Last night in paradise.”
I didn’t reply.
On Tuesday they flew back to Virginia.
By then I had already picked up Victoria’s ashes.
I placed the urn on the living room table next to her ring, some photographs, a copy of the new will, and the bottle, which had been temporarily handed over to the authorities and later documented as part of the investigation.
Patricia was with me.
The notary who had formalized Victoria’s final decisions was there too.
At four in the afternoon I heard a car pull in.
My father came in first.
He was sunburned, carrying a new bag.
Behind him came Paige with two suitcases, and Brandon with Ashley.
They were laughing.
“Morgan!” my father called from the entryway. “I hope you cleaned, because this place smelled horrible when we left.”
Then he walked into the living room.
He saw the urn.
His smile vanished.
“What is that?”
I didn’t answer right away.
Brandon set down his suitcase.
“Where’s Victoria?”
I pointed to the table.
“There.”
My father went pale.
“No.”
Paige put her hands over her mouth.
“She died?”
“On Sunday.”
“And you cremated her without us?” Dad shouted.
That was the first thing he asked.
Not how she died.
Not whether she suffered.
Not what her last words were.
Only why he hadn’t been able to show up at the funeral.
I took out my phone.
“I asked you to come back.”
“We were on a cruise!”
“I know.”
I played the video.
My father’s voice filled the room.
“We paid a fortune for this trip. We’re not going to lose it because she decided to get worse right now.”
Then Brandon’s voice:
“Tell her to hold on until Tuesday.”
Ashley slowly turned her head toward him.
“You said that?”
Brandon swallowed.
“We were drinking. It was a joke.”
“A joke about a dying woman?”
“Ashley, stay out of it.”
She stepped back.
I continued.
“We also have the family account activity.”
I laid several statements on the table.
“Nine thousand eight hundred fifty dollars spent while Victoria went without proper care.”
My father recovered some of his arrogance.
“That money was family money.”
“Part of it was my paycheck.”
“Well, you always said it was for the house.”
“For medicine and basic expenses. Not for the casino.”
Brandon raised his hands.
“We’ll pay you back.”
“With what?”
He didn’t answer.
Then I set down a photograph of the empty cabinet.
“You also sold her military mementos.”
My father scoffed.
“They were old things.”
“Not to her.”
“Oh, Morgan, enough. You always exaggerate everything because you think you’re better than us since you joined the Navy.”
I looked at him for several seconds.
All my life that line had worked.
Richard knew exactly which buttons to push.
He knew how to make me feel guilty.
He knew how to turn any boundary of mine into a supposed lack of love.
But that afternoon it didn’t work.
“You want to talk about exaggerating?”
I took out a copy of the report on the medication.
For the first time, his expression changed.
“The bottle that should have held Victoria’s pain medication did not contain the prescribed drug.”
My father glanced quickly at Brandon.
Then at Paige.
Patricia stepped in.
“That is part of a formal investigation, Mr. Richard, along with the conditions in which your wife was found and the statements gathered.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Victoria said otherwise.”
“A dying woman can say anything!”
Patricia opened her folder.
“That’s why we don’t rely solely on her statement.”
My father fell silent.
I could see him doing the math in his head.
And then exactly what Victoria had predicted happened.
“Well,” Dad said, “we can sort this out as a family. After all, I’m her husband. I’ll need to go through what Victoria left and take care of her property.”
Brandon’s expression changed instantly.
“Right. First we need to know how everything was left.”
Paige nodded.
Only minutes had passed since they’d learned of her death, and they were already thinking about the inheritance.
Patricia looked at the notary.
He opened a document.
“That’s precisely what we’re going to clarify.”
My father sat down.
“Go ahead.”
He looked almost calm.
He was probably expecting a house, some bank accounts, or a life insurance policy.
“Mrs. Victoria Hayes clearly set out the distribution of the assets she was entitled to dispose of by will,” the notary explained. “In addition, years ago she established a separate asset trust.”
