“You get nothing for cutting us off,” my sister announced at the lawyer’s office. “The properties are all mine.”
My parents smirked. I said nothing.
The attorney opened a folder. “Before we proceed, about these irrevocable trusts from 2019…”
My sister started screaming. The law office of Patterson and Associates occupied the third floor of a brick building in downtown Portland.
I arrived 15 minutes early, as I always did for everything. The receptionist gave me a polite smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Miss Chun, they’re expecting you.
Conference Room B.”
I nodded my thanks and walked down the hallway, my footsteps silent on the plush carpet. Through the glass walls, I could see them already assembled. My parents, David and Susan Chun.
My older sister, Victoria. My younger brother, Marcus. Uncle Wei and Aunt Lynn.
They were laughing about something. I opened the door, and the laughter died. “Oh,” Victoria said, her perfectly manicured eyebrows rising.
“You actually came?”
“Of course I came,” I replied quietly, taking a seat at the far end of the conference table. “Grandma passed away. This is her will reading.”
“Surprised you even knew she died,” Marcus muttered, not quite under his breath.
“Since you never visited.”
I folded my hands in my lap and said nothing. There was no point in explaining that I’d video-called Grandma every single day for the past three years. That we talked for hours about everything and nothing.
That she taught me Mandarin over FaceTime and I taught her how to use Instagram. They wouldn’t believe me anyway. My father cleared his throat.
“We weren’t sure you’d get the message. You’re so busy with your life in Seattle.”
“I got the message,” I said simply. The truth was, I’d been the one who received the call from the hospice nurse.
I’d been the one on the phone with Grandma in her final hours, listening to her labored breathing, telling her I loved her in both English and Mandarin. But my family didn’t know that. They’d been too busy arguing about funeral arrangements to notice who was actually with her, even if only virtually.
Victoria was dressed in head-to-toe black designer clothes, looking like she was attending a fashion show rather than a will reading. “Well, let’s get this over with. Some of us have actual commitments.”
What happened next changed everything… continues on the next page.
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