My Sister Stole My Husband novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Ask Me Again in the Morning

On Friday morning Maeve's father was as clear as she had seen him in three years, and she did not waste a minute of it.

She propped her phone against a vase on the sunroom table and checked that the red dot was counting.

Niall stood beside her with his arms folded.

Peg stood on the other side in her coat.

She was fresh from a night of making eggs for a woman she had called "the little thief" to her face.

"Dad," Maeve said. "Tell it the way you told me."

Her father looked into the lens with his chin up.

"It's Friday," he said. "The day before my wife's party. I'm sixty-six, and I'm in my right mind, and I want everybody to hear me say so."

Peg gave a small nod.

"I never signed a paper about my house. Not in the spring, not ever. If a signature says otherwise, somebody else wrote it." His voice was rough, but it did not shake. "My daughter Maeve decides my care and my money. I put that on paper six years ago, with a lawyer, and I haven't changed my mind."

He stopped for a second and swallowed.

"If I say yes to anything tomorrow night," he said, "I was tired. Ask me again in the morning."

Maeve ended the recording and played it back once, quietly, to be sure of the sound.

Her father's voice came out of the phone clear and unhurried.

"That's good, Dad."

"Good." He patted her hand. "Now where's my tea?"

By eleven he had gone drifting again, and Maeve walked out to the lobby with Niall and Peg on either side of her.

There she stopped, because her mother was standing at the front desk.

She wore her good wool coat and carried a box from a bakery.

The day administrator, a heavy, composed woman with a lanyard, was speaking to her in a low, polite voice.

"I understand, Mrs. Prendergast. But the file now lists his daughter as his representative. You're welcome to visit."

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