His fiancee, Amber, picked up the page before he could. She read it once. Then she read it again, slower.
It was in her handwriting, the same careful cursive Grandma used on every birthday card for thirty years. It was dated the spring before she passed. It said, My wedding ring goes to my granddaughter. She sat with me every Sunday for two years. And under that, a second line. The pocket watch of my late husband goes to Brent, who I hope will slow down long enough to use it.
The lawyer had found it folded in her Bible in March, witnessed and signed. It was legal. My aunt had seen it. So had Brent. He just never told anybody.
Amber looked at Brent. She said, you told me she gave it to you.
He did not answer.
For a whole year I was the one turning her death into a fight, and the truth had been sitting in her Bible the entire time, in her own hand.
Then Amber did something nobody at that table expected. She slid the ring off her finger, walked around the table, and set it in my palm. She said she was sorry. She said she never would have worn it if she had known.
Nobody said anything for a long moment. Then my aunt picked the serving spoon back up and said, well. Who wants more potatoes?
Brent left early. Amber stayed. She helped my aunt with the dishes, and she and I ended up standing at the sink together for an hour. She said Brent told her the ring was the one thing Grandma ever gave him. She said she felt like a fool. I told her she was not the one who lied.
A few weeks later, Brent called me. He said he was sorry. He said Grandma always paid more attention to me, and when she died, he wanted one thing that proved she loved him too. He said he knew about the codicil and hid it because he was ashamed of what it said.
I told him to read the second line again.
He was quiet. Then he said he never went to pick up the watch.
So I drove it to him. It was in a little velvet pouch at the office of the lawyer, with a card in her handwriting tucked inside. Brent opened it on his porch. The card said, you were always running. This is so you know you have time.
He cried. I had never seen Brent cry, not even at the funeral.
He and Amber got married last fall. Amber wears a ring Brent picked out himself. It is simple and it suits her. Brent wore the watch to the wedding.
I wear the ring on Sundays. It is the day I used to sit with her.