Six days after that dinner, I quietly bought the one house my son’s family wanted more than anything.
One million, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Cash.
Desert Flip accepted in four hours. They hadn’t started demo. They made three hundred and ten thousand dollars without lifting a hammer.
We closed eight days later.
At a title company on Camelback Road.
I signed the papers.
Not as Margaret Briggs.
As the authorized signatory for Second Cup Holdings, LLC.
I moved out on October twenty-ninth.
I didn’t tell Daniel where I was going.
I told him I’d found a place. In Phoenix. A little place. Near some old friends from church.
That was true.
Mostly.
Renee helped me pack.
She was very kind about it. Kinder than she’d been in a year. She bought boxes. She wrapped my dishes in newspaper. She asked if I needed help with movers.
