“Are you out of your mind? You want my mother to p…

The house had a covered front porch with two rocking chairs, a kitchen with original built-in shelving, and a backyard with a Japanese maple that turned brilliant red every October. I loved it the way you love something you earned, not just with money, but with sacrifice, intention, and the quiet daily choice to keep going when it would have been easier to stop. When Daniel and I got married, he moved in with me.

His name was never added to the deed, not because I was secretive about it, but because we had never discussed it and I had never thought to raise it. At the time, it seemed like a detail, not a decision. I understand now that there are no details in a marriage.

There are only decisions you have made and decisions you have avoided, and eventually both catch up with you. Patricia had visited our house many times over the years. She had opinions about the curtains being too dark, the garden being too wild, the kitchen layout being inefficient, and my habit of keeping fresh herbs on the windowsill being unnecessary.

She offered these opinions freely and without invitation, in the mild, cheerful tone of someone giving helpful suggestions, which made it nearly impossible to object without seeming unreasonable. I had learned to nod and redirect. “That’s interesting, Patricia.