“Whatever.” Michael threw back his shoulders and took a deep, jagged breath. A hardness passed over his face, a hardness that took Ann by surprise because she’d never seen him look like that. He’d always been open with her; open to her. Now he was cold, firm. “I’ll force the sale. I can do that. And when I do, the house will go to the highest bidder. You can bid on it for what it’s worth to you, which might be more, or less, than you were asking. But I want you to know that the person you’ll bid against is me.” He reached into his pocket and took out his keys. Ann noticed that the key ring was silly—a picture of a cat and the words HAPPY CAT. She knew that wasn’t a key ring he’d picked out for himself. For the first time, she considered that he had other people in his life, people who gave him gifts. People who loved him.

“I’ll never let you buy it.”

“You might not have a choice.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“I’ve already filed a petition to have you removed as the administrator of the estate.” He crunched the keys in his hand so hard they had to have cut into the flesh of his palm. “You’ve acted in bad faith.”

“Just listen to you, talking about acting in bad faith. You would know.”

Ann began to walk toward her car. She couldn’t take it anymore. She had the wet door handle in her hand when Michael said something that stopped her.

“Does your kid know?” Your kid. The idea of Noah seemed so casual, so distant. Just some kid. “Say he needs a kidney or something.”

“He knows. I told him after Anthony died.” She knew she was dropping a bomb. She needed to destabilize Michael.

“I heard about that.” Michael stood with his arms at his sides as if he didn’t know what to do with them.

“Right. You two were thick as thieves.”

“No, I mean my business partner told me. He’d called—” Michael started to say something more, but Ann wouldn’t listen.

“I don’t want to talk about Anthony. Look, Michael. Do whatever you think you need to do. I don’t understand why you’re making this so difficult. You took his money.”

“I did, but can’t we just talk?”

“No!” Ann stomped her foot like she was shooing a raccoon from a garbage can.

“We have nothing to say to each other. I’m getting out of here.”