Cody took an Uber to his mother’s apartment in a small suburb outside of Chicago. Marley had moved out for college, and after graduation she found her own place downtown with friends. While he had two weeks off, he didn’t plan to spend them with his mom. He was only here to give her the check.

And maybe also to gauge her anger level.

He knocked on the door and waited until she opened it. Her eyes lit up like she hadn’t just seen him a week and a half ago, and she pulled him in for a hug, one it seemed she needed.

“Look at you,” she said. “I made spaghetti and meatballs—your favorite.”

The scent of garlic and oregano struck him as he walked through the door. He inhaled a deep breath. “It smells amazing.”

She glided back into the kitchen, removed the lid from a pot on the stove, and stirred the contents with a wooden spoon. “Flight was good?”

Cody dropped his bag on the floor by the door and took out the white envelope. “Everything’s good, Ma.”

“Great.” She looked up with a smile, which quickly faded when she met his eyes. “Then why are you here? You hardly ever get leave.”

He slid the envelope across the counter.

“What’s this?”

“Open it.”

She covered the pot and did as he said, eyes widening as she saw what was inside. “What on earth?”

“It’s what Maggie left us,” Cody said. “That’s what her lawyer wanted me to give you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“She was rich,” he said. “Because of Dad.”

His mom frowned.

“After Warren lost Maggie’s money, Dad repaid it—but he invested it, the way Warren was supposed to.”

Her frown deepened.

“I know it’s easy to think that Dad took care of everyone else but us, but I don’t think that was it. I think he had a plan to take care of us, too—it just got interrupted the night he died.”

His mother’s body went rigid.

Cody had been thinking about it for days now—his father’s choices and how they impacted their lives. It would be easy to be angry or bitter, but that wasn’t what his father would’ve wanted. It wasn’t how he’d lived his life.

“Dad loved Warren and JoEllen,” Cody said. “And he loved Maggie.”

His mother stood, unmoving, like a statue.

“He loved them enough to take care of them, to sacrifice for them. It’s rare, that kind of love. Remember? He called it ‘Jesus love.’”