I set the phone on my kitchen counter and let Mom continue explaining why I should forgive everyone and finalize the paperwork. But I kept thinking about how often she had asked when the deed would be finished. She never asked whether I was hurt by being excluded. She only cared about the paperwork. Suddenly, I wondered if the timing had been deliberate.

“Mom, when did you first contact the attorney?” I asked. Silence followed. I opened my email and searched through an old thread. Weeks earlier, I had sent my parents the attorney’s contact information so they could ask questions about the property transfer. Then I found their reply. My parents had secretly contacted the attorney nine days earlier. They had asked whether the $265,000 bungalow could be transferred directly into their names—and whether they could sell it. The dates revealed exactly what they had been planning.