She didn’t wait for them to reply. She walked in the front door and headed straight for the library Margaret clearly never used, except to hide away the things she couldn’t face.

The basket full of large envelopes all with the Spenser Software return address and logo sat on the credenza behind the desk. Sarah had discovered them the first week she’d arrived at Margaret’s when she’d vacuumed the downstairs rooms. It infuriated her to discover that not a single envelope, except the first she’d sent, had been opened.

She slammed the basket down on the desk as Luke, Margaret, and Bridget entered the room. “Shut the door. I don’t want the boys to hear this.”

She waited while Luke shut the door and Margaret and Bridget moved into the room and faced her across the desk. Margaret eased herself into the chair; her slight frame had gone thin and frail the last two years. Her own damn fault. She just didn’t know it. Because Sarah had provided.

She’d taken the high road and done the right thing despite how hard Margaret made it to remain kind and not angry all the time.

Bridget stood with her arms folded, ready to do battle over her brother, even if he didn’t deserve it.

Sarah shouldn’t have let this go on for so long. She had her own excuses and reasons why she put Sean’s family on the back burner. He’d left her enough to clean up and take care of. She could only do so much.

More excuses and reasons that didn’t matter to Margaret, who suffered because of her own stubbornness and Sarah’s.

“You love Sean. You remember him a certain way.”

Margaret cautiously nodded, while Bridget glared at her sister-in-law.

“I have tried to allow you to keep your memories of Sean just as you remember him. Most of it is real. But what he told you about college, our marriage, the company . . . It’s all half-truths and lies. You’re so angry with me about what he told you, and I’ve allowed you to believe, because I didn’t want you to think less of Sean. Having two sons, I can see why you’d want to believe that Sean was a wonderful person without any flaws. But we all have flaws.”

“Some of us more than others,” Bridget shot back.

Margaret gave her one of those harsh looks she liked to level on Sarah, but it quickly faded and her gaze turned thoughtful. “He was wonderful until you came along and ruined everything. He had such a bright future ahead of him. The business was everything to him. He told me how you made him work so hard that he was never home. You were never happy because he couldn’t make money as fast as you wanted. He told me how you spent everything he made. You were so busy out having a good time that you couldn’t be bothered with the boys. He said you never let him come to see me, and kept the children away from us here. And I’ve seen you while you’ve been here. You’re constantly on the phone or computer, probably online shopping and chatting with your friends.” She said all the words, but the heat and certainty behind them waned as doubt crept in.