Page 9 of P.S. I'm Still Yours

I get that her husband wasn’t the nicest guy and all—okay, he was a total dickwad—but her reaction made me wonder why she married him to begin with.

Kane’s reaction to his dad’s death was a completely different story. He skipped right over the denial stage and went straight to worrying about his mom.

He refused to leave Evie’s side afterward. He seemed to think she’d break down at any given moment, and I got the sense he was focusing on her so that he wouldn’t have to face his own feelings.

And it worked.

He didn’t cry once.

At least not while I was there.

And if he did cry at some point, we didn’t stick around long enough to see it.

Mom, Gray, and I were gone by 7:00 a.m. the next morning.

Mom refused to fill us in on the details. She just said Evie and Kane needed time to process, and we were going home earlier. Just like that, we left the beach house and a decade of memories behind.

Gray and I tried to pry more information out of her, but she keeps saying we’re too young to be exposed to such heavy matters. I know she’s just trying to protect us, but being kept in the dark is slowly driving me crazy.

In the beginning, I’d stay up all night wondering what Mr. Wilder’s death meant for Evie and Kane’s future. I even tried to text Kane once.

When he didn’t reply, I tried calling him, but his number seems to have been disconnected.

Then I heard Mom on the phone with Evie.

It was late at night. Mom was sitting on the couch after closing up the store, and I snuck downstairs to eavesdrop.

At one point, she said something about Mr. Wilder’s will, and it kept coming up in the conversation. I’d heard that word before, but I wasn’t sure what it meant.

That sick bastard. He can’t do this to you, Evie. We won’t let him, Mom argued.

It sounded like Evie was sobbing on the other end. Mom followed up with a promise to get Evie in touch with a friend of hers who takes “pro bono cases.”

More words I didn’t understand.

I went back up to my room, grabbed my phone, and looked up every detail I could remember from their conversation.

A little while later, I figured it out.

Evie needs a lawyer.

For what? I don’t know.

It wasn’t until two weeks ago, when Mom sat us down and told us Evie and Kane would be moving into our house, that I understood just how bad the situation really was.

Evie and Kane are broke.

It makes no sense, but they are.

And I’m guessing that’s why Evie needs a lawyer.

Mom is sitting at the table when I enter the kitchen. She gestures for me to take a seat, her hands joined together in front of her.

A pit forms in my throat. “Is everything okay?”

She gives a small nod. “Of course, honey. We just need to have a quick chat before Evie and Kane get here.”

A few seconds elapse before Mom’s patience runs out and she calls for my brother. “Grayson, any day now!”