Arthur joked:
“I’m becoming badly engineered.”
Clara stopped laughing at those jokes.
The age gap had always been a number.
Thirty-five years.
Now it became a threat.
One afternoon, Clara caught herself watching Arthur sleep.
She was counting breaths.
He opened one eye.
“You’re hovering.”
“No.”
“You’re literally standing over me.”
“I was checking something.”
“My pulse?”
“Maybe.”
Arthur smiled.
“Clara.”
“What?”
“You’re attached.”
She glared.
“Go back to sleep.”
He did.
She stood there another minute.
He was right.
PART 14
Arthur was hospitalized six months later.
Heart failure exacerbation.
Stephen arrived.
Then Arthur’s younger son Matthew.
At first, everything seemed normal.
Questions for doctors.
Medication discussions.
Prognosis.
Then Stephen asked about cognition.
Clara noticed.
“Why?”
Stephen looked at her.
“What?”
“Why are you asking whether his judgment is impaired?”
“He’s seventy-five.”
“So?”
“He’s made unusual financial decisions.”
There it was.
The condo.
Clara felt cold.
Arthur opened his eyes from the hospital bed.
“My financial decisions are none of your cardiologist’s business.”
Stephen stiffened.
Arthur continued:
“And apparently neither are yours.”
PART 15
After discharge, Arthur called his attorney, David Klein.
Three days later, David came to the house.
Arthur invited Clara into the study.
She sat reluctantly.
David opened a file.
“We found irregular withdrawals from a family-managed investment account.”
Clara frowned.
“How much?”
“Approximately $2.6 million.”
She looked at Arthur.
“Who?”
Arthur said nothing.
Clara understood.
“Stephen?”
“Yes.”
She immediately stood.
“No.”
Arthur frowned.
“No what?”
“I’m not entering a financial war with your children.”
“This isn’t about you.”
“It will become about me.”
David nodded.
“She’s correct.”
Clara continued.
“They already think I married you for money.”
“I know.”
“Then handle it yourself.”
Arthur reached across the desk.
“I’m telling you because I promised myself no more secrets.”
She stopped.
Christmas.
Arthur and Lily.
Your mother still can’t know.
Clara sat again.
“Fine.”
Then pointed at him.
“But I do not want another property.”
Arthur laughed.
“Noted.”
PART 16
The financial problem was worse than Arthur expected.
Stephen had suffered investment losses.
Then borrowed from the account.
Then borrowed again.
At first, the withdrawals appeared temporary.
Later, signatures were altered.
Transfers hidden.
Matthew had suspected something but stayed quiet.
When Clara learned that, she understood Arthur’s grief.
Not the money.
The secrecy.
“He could have asked me.”
Arthur said one night.
Clara answered:
“Would you have given him $2.6 million?”
“No.”
