Chapter 21: Last Offer

"Read it from there," I said.

Bernadette looked at the porch boards, and at the cold, and then she smiled and opened the folder.

"It's short," she said. "My son wasn't a long writer."

She read it in a flat, businesslike voice.

Hamish had left his fifteen percent of Lindmark Marine to his wife, Marlo Lowry Lindmark.

He had left the dry dock, and the little house behind it, and his truck, to his brother, Orin.

Her voice caught on the name, once.

Then there was a page she did not read aloud, and she held it out to me.

"That one's for you," she said.

I took it.

It was a single sheet in Hamish's handwriting, round and neat, in blue ink, and my hand began to shake.

Marlo, I should have told you about my brother. I kept meaning to.

I'm leaving for Rotterdam on Thursday, and if I come back, I'll fix it.

If I don't, find Orin. Tell him I'm sorry I stayed.

Tell him Mom will try to use you to make him come home, and not to go until he's ready.

I love you. Be bold with the shares. I know you will be.

I stood on my porch in the cold reading that, and I heard a sound behind me that wasn't a word.

Orin had put the back of his hand against his mouth.

"He knew," he said.

"He knew he wanted to tell me."

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