My attorney, Mr. Callahan, listened without interrupting. Then he asked one question. “Eleanor, are you absolutely sure?” I told him I had never been surer of anything. The cash buyer who beat Marcus and Julia had lost his financing, and the craftsman house on Maple Hollow Lane was quietly back on the market.

Six days after that dinner, I bought it through Hollis Creek Holdings, a company name Marcus had seen on a small check every Christmas for years. That Saturday, I told them a surprise waited at the house, and I drove over ahead of them. They arrived laughing and hopeful. A SOLD sign stood on the lawn, with a small plate beneath it. Marcus read it slowly. His smile disappeared. “Hollis Creek,” he whispered. Then the front door opened, and I stepped onto the porch holding the keys.