Slowly, I understood David had hidden her from shame over his father and fear of destroying his mother. Eventually, silence became easier than truth.
That explanation did not make his choices right.
It only made them human.
Grace stayed.
Not because David ordered me to keep her. Not because of the papers, the money, or his final wish.
She stayed because, when I could have sent her away, I understood that she had been betrayed too.
David had left us a broken truth inside a wooden box.
What we built from it afterward was our choice.
