I Gave Him Half My Liver, Then He Sold My Father's House novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Gift With His Name On It

Daphne places the settlement in front of me and turns the signature page toward my chair.

'Nell, this is intended to restore your access to the house without forcing anyone into an unnecessary dispute.'

The probate office smells of paper, radiator dust, and the Earl Grey Daphne drinks from a cup with a hairline crack near the handle. She has chosen the smaller meeting room. No windows. One table. Two chairs for me, one for her.

She has brought a witness.

Patrick sits beside the filing cabinet with his coat folded across his knees. He raises two fingers when he sees me, the same greeting he used after I paid his first accountancy exam fee.

I sit opposite Daphne and leave the settlement untouched.

Daphne smooths the top page. 'You have been through a difficult period, and Gregor is conscious that returning to the property may be unsettling. This proposal gives you security while preserving the sale already arranged.'

'Access,' I say. 'Not ownership.'

Her mouth softens. She has always been good at making a refusal sound like a misunderstanding.

'Joint ownership, Nell. Your name would be added to the arrangement. You would have full residential access, an agreed share of any future sale proceeds, and a clear route back into the house once the current transaction is complete.'

The page is headed without Gregor's name. His solicitor has been careful. His fingerprints are absent from the thing he wants me to sign.

I read the first clause. Then the second.

The settlement describes Gregor as the beneficial owner by family agreement. It describes my consent as confirmation that the house was always intended to pass into joint names. It calls the disputed codicil a private family document and requires me to withdraw any objection based on its execution.

Gregor has improved the twenty thousand pounds.

Now he wants me to pay him with my name.

'You would have a key,' Daphne says. 'You would be able to collect your belongings and use the rear rooms. I think that is a fair restoration of what has been lost.'

'What has been lost?'

She pauses. 'Your domestic access.'

The phrase sits between us. Domestic access. My father left me the house. Gregor changed the locks. Daphne drafted the paper that turned a theft into a family arrangement.

I look down at the signature line.

The hospital discharge summary is clipped behind the settlement. I see the date through the gap in the pages. Emergency cardiac admission. Thomas Ashford. The date printed beneath it matches the date on the codicil Gregor claims my father signed.

Daphne has not hidden it. She has filed it.

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