After Nicholas died, I believed the hardest part would be learning how to live without him. I was wrong. The real shock came when my children, Brandon and Melissa, arrived with papers claiming the orchard we had built together would be sold to a developer. They told me Nicholas had left instructions for them to sell the property, and they expected me to accept the decision without question. Grief had made me tired, but it had not made me foolish. Something about the document looked wrong.

I remembered Nicholas always telling me to keep emergency money hidden away, and that small precaution allowed me to contact Vincent Hargrove, the attorney who had handled our affairs for decades. He examined the document carefully, then looked at me with an expression that made my stomach tighten. He told me it was not our actual will. Then he showed me something even more important.