She left the front door unlocked.

He answered on the third ring, his voice warm with surprise. Behind him, she could hear Priya laughing, a child counting in Tamil, the clatter of a real life.

She did, however, remove Leo from her own will—a fact she announced at breakfast the next morning, as if it were the weather.

Another pause. “But I am coming to see you . Next weekend. Without telling Mother. Let her sit in her empty mansion and wonder.”

For the first time, Leo spoke. “Maya doesn’t know she’s in the will at all.” He looked at his mother. “You told me to hide her. You said it would ‘simplify things.’ But you knew. You knew Dad left her a share too—the orchard, outright. You just wanted me to choose.”