For years, he had seen Monica trying to convince her grandmother to move out of the old house. Her pleas had grown desperate last summer, when someone had broken into Lily’s home and stolen valuables. But Lily was nothing if not stubborn. When her neighbor, Ruby Brown, had called them early in the morning last week and could barely speak through her sobs, Troy had expected the worst.

Went to see Lily so we could take our morning’ walk . . . I had a key to her house, you see, since we been neighbors so long . . . and she was layin’ at the bottom of the stairs and it looked like she musta been there all night . . .

Although crime had been a concern in Lily’s neighborhood, foul play had never entered the picture. There had been no signs of forced entry, no evidence of a robbery, and thus, no police investigation had been opened. The conclusion, supported by an autopsy, was that Lily had gone upstairs for some reason and on the way down she’d lost her balance, tumbled down the steps, and snapped her neck. Accidental falls at home accounted for thousands of deaths each year, and many of the victims were elderly.

Troy buried his face in his wife’s hair as the choir’s singing echoed throughout the large, high-ceilinged sanctuary. Hot tears slid from his eyes. Lily had disliked him when he’d first begun to romance her cherished granddaughter during their residencies at Emory, considered him a silver-tongued lothario using his burgeoning medical career to entice women, but over time, he and the tough old lady had brokered a truce. He believed giving her two adorable great-grandkids had helped in that regard.

His mother, Pat, sat on his left. She was keeping his kids under control: seven-year-old Lexi and five-year-old Junior. Both of his children were in elementary school but still too young to really understand what was going on, and he questioned the wisdom of bringing them to the service, but Monica had insisted they pay tribute to the woman they knew as “Gran Nana.” He was in no position to deny Monica anything she requested. Lily was the only family she had ever known.

Lily had taken in Monica’s birth mother, a teenager at the time. After living for only two weeks under Lily’s strict rule, the girl had come home and announced she was pregnant, the father unknown. She stayed around long enough to give birth to Monica, signed her over to Lily’s care, and cut out of sight. No one had seen her since.