My Sister Called to Say Our Father Was Dead While He Sat Beside Me. By Sunset, the Funeral She Planned Had Become Her Trial..105
She sighed as if my question were a delay she had not budgeted for.
“Does it matter?” she said. “He’s gone.”
Across the table, Dad lowered his fork with deliberate care.
His eyes hardened.
I knew that look.
Simone apparently didn’t.
She kept talking.
“Marcus and I are handling everything. There’s really no reason for you to come to the house.”
Dad glanced at me.
Simone continued.
“The locks are being changed this morning.”
A thin, charged silence followed.
Then I heard laughter in the background.
Marcus.
My brother-in-law had a loud, breathless laugh that always sounded like the victory lap of a man amazed by his own deception.
A muscle shifted once along Dad’s jaw.
I folded my arms.
“Why are the locks being changed?”
Another sigh.
Simone sounded almost bored now.
