After Husband Dies, Widow Inherits Cheap Pendant, but Lady She Never Met Inherits His Property – Story of the Day

When Maeve’s husband dies, she expects the grieving process to take its toll on her and her family. But when they are shocked out of their grief when they discover a strange woman gets to inherit his property. Who is this woman and why does she get a claim to their home?

Isobel melted a tablespoon of butter. It was the last thing she needed to do – brush the scones with a mix of melted butter and milk and put them into the oven. She couldn't wait for the house to smell like fresh baking. It was the most comforting thing she could think of.

Isobel needed to go back to grading papers. The results needed to be soon, and she wanted to do anything but that. It was a cold and rainy day, and all she could think about was biting into the fresh scones with jam and cream while sipping her Earl Grey tea.

She sighed. She had twenty minutes for the oven to ding when it was done. So, she had twenty minutes to work on a few papers.

"Right," she said to herself. "Let's do this."

She picked up the first paper from the pile and began to read. Not even a minute later, her phone rang.

"Hello," she said. She didn't even check the caller ID before answering.

"Hi Isobel, it's Rick Morgan," the reply came.

"Rick, hello," she said, surprised. The lawyer hadn't called her in a long time.

"I'm just calling to let you know Spencer Martin has passed on. I thought you'd like to know."

"Oh," she said. "Why are you telling me this?"

"You know why."

"You mean he still didn't change the will?" she asked.

"Seems like he didn't get a chance to. The funeral is tomorrow at the old church if you're interested," the lawyer said.

"I'll go. Thank you, Rick."

After the phone call, Isobel sat and looked out the window. She had so many things running through her mind. She didn't know what her next move would be, only that she needed to do something. Spencer's family would be devastated when they discovered the truth.

She knew that he was married and that he had children, but nothing beyond that.

Isobel sighed. Suddenly, her day of marking seemed more tedious than before as she tried to process her thoughts.

The oven beeped, letting her know that the scones were ready. But Isobel had lost her appetite. Nothing was how it had been twenty minutes ago.

Maeve sat on her bed and mentally ticked off things to do. She was sure that everything was sorted between herself and her sister. They had divided the tasks. Now, Maeve sat trying to decide which black dress she would wear to the church. She wanted to get this right, even if 'this' wasn't something she saw herself doing for the next thirty years.

She wanted to look good, to look presentable and put-together, not like a woman who had been widowed too soon and who would have to explain to her children that their father wouldn't be coming back.

The thought disturbed her. It was her new reality, and she had stepped into it with the "grace of someone who had been through it all," or so her mother had said.

Pearls, she thought, would finish the look no matter what she decided to wear.

Isobel sat on the couch and watched the cars go by through the window. She knew she was overthinking everything, but what else was there to do than go to the funeral?

Of course, the family probably wouldn't even question her presence. They would most likely think that she was a colleague of Spencer's, and nobody would bat an eye. She wasn't worried about them seeing her. She was worried about her seeing them.

She didn't know what Spencer's wife would think when they eventually read out the will. And it seemed ridiculous to even question going to their home and telling her the truth now. If Isobel was honest, she wasn't even sure where their home was.

And what about the children? Isobel knew that they would be so confused. Already so lost with the loss of their father, imagine finding out that he had left everything to a stranger?

Isobel felt hollow. She wanted to be angry at Spencer, but how could she? After all the years of being so wonderful to her, the last thing she could do was be angry at his memory. Isobel sipped her tea and thought about the first time she met Spencer.

"Are the flowers sorted, Jen?" Maeve asked her sister while she tried to eat the casserole that someone had dropped off at some point during that day. She was so tired of having to thank people for bringing food over, food that was mostly being thrown into the freezer because she didn't know what else to do with it.

"Yes, Mae," her sister replied. "The flowers for the church, the burial, and for the wake. All sorted. All uniform and exactly what you wanted. Now, eat."

"I am eating. But really, who puts green beans and chickpeas into a casserole anyway?" she retorted.

"I'm going to go for the one that looks like mince and aubergine," Jenna grinned. "At least that's what it looks like to me."

Maeve laughed and was fine at first. It felt natural to be sitting at the dining table with her sister and laughing over food that tasted good but had very questionable combinations.

She sighed, feeling the weight of the world stretch across her shoulder blades. If laughing with her sister was such a natural thing to do, why did it feel so foreign to her?

"Hey," Jenna said, putting her hand on Maeve's. "It's okay to forget everything, even if it's just for a minute. I promise you, Spencer would want you to be yourself. And laughing at things at the most inappropriate moment is definitely who you are."

"I keep having to remind myself that this is reality. My husband had a heart attack at forty years old, which makes little to no sense because he was ridiculous about his diet and fitness routine. But here we are, eating casseroles from neighbors that I barely know and having to constantly check on the kids, who seem too calm."

"Too calm or just in shock?" Jenna asked.

"I really don't know. Before I came downstairs, I took Noa into her room to show her what she has to wear tomorrow, and she just nodded and smiled at me the entire time."

"That sounds like shock, Mae. She was so close to Spencer, too. Noa was her father's daughter in every sense of the word. You look at the child, and you see Spencer in every feature. She's twelve. Give her a minute to understand what's happening."

"I know," Maeve said. "I'm sorry, you're right. She's a baby. They both are. This is traumatizing for them both. Henry is feeling it a bit more, he's a bit sniffly every time I walk by, but I think he's just trying to hold it together for me. A nine-year-old boy trying to protect his mother."

"I believe that Henry is like you. He always wants to keep his feelings hidden, wrapped into himself."

Maeve was about to compliment her sister on knowing her children so well when the doorbell rang.

"I'm sure it's Spencer's siblings, Lily and William. They asked if they should book a hotel or whether they could stay here. We have the room, so of course, I told them to stay here. Besides, having family around will help us all."

Maeve opened the door to Spencer's siblings, just like she had predicted. Lily threw her arms around Maeve tightly as if trying to squeeze away all the sadness. Lily smelt like old books and had a subtle floral scent that instantly calmed Maeve down.

Lily had always had that effect on Maeve, from the day she first met Spencer's entire family until her wedding to Spencer, when Maeve had almost run away because of her nerves.

But it was when Maeve saw William, who looked like a younger version of Spencer, that her heart almost stopped. She looked at William and saw Spencer on their wedding day. William reached out and pulled her into a hug, holding onto her as tightly as Lily had done.

And that was when Maeve finally let herself break down – finally, allowing herself to cry and realize that Spencer wasn't coming back. And that all the arrangements that they had made over the past two days were for his final goodbye.

That the food that she had ordered was Spencer's favorite, even though she did not like most of it. That the flowers were the more subtle version of their wedding flowers and that the music she had chosen for the burial, for that final moment, was an instrumental of the song they had danced to at their wedding.

Maeve breathed in William's smell; it wasn't like Spencer's, but it was almost as comforting.

"It's okay," Wiliam said. "This is the biggest shock to us all." He held onto Maeve, and she was grateful.

Seeing Lily and William made everything real. She felt lighter than air. She knew that Spencer and his siblings were as close as she and Jenna were, so everyone being together was exactly what she needed. And what the children needed, too.

After Maeve had shown everyone to their rooms and heated dinner, she escaped to her room. She sat on Spencer's side of the bed and took a deep breath from his pillow, allowing his smell to consume her. She would miss this. She would miss it all.

She ran her fingers along the book beside his bed, picked up his reading glasses, and then put them down. What was going to happen tomorrow? It would be the last time she, Noa, and Henry would be in a room with Spencer.

Maeve blinked back her tears. Since Lily and William had gotten there, her tears threatened to spill at any moment. It was as if she only allowed herself to be fully human and embrace it all after she had them and Jenna around. She knew that if she were to break now, her children would be fine.

They would be safe. They would have people to take up the reigns where she dropped them.

She changed into her pajama pants and pulled on the sweatshirt that Spencer had been wearing the day before it happened. Maeve got into bed and was about to turn off the light when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," she called.

"Hi, Mommy," Noa said from the doorway.

Maeve could make out a pair of bright red socks next to her.

"Can we sleep with you?" Henry asked from half behind his sister.

"Of course, you can," Maeve said.

She jumped out of bed and went to get the kids, helping them into the bed from Spencer's side. She tucked them in, Henry in the middle, and then got in. Noa reached out and held her hand, and Henry wrapped his arms tightly around her waist.

"You can sleep here for as long as you like," she said.

Maeve reached out and kissed Noa's hand and then kissed Henry's head

Then, they fell asleep.

The next morning, Maeve woke up early, but she didn't dare slip out of bed. Noa was asleep, holding onto Henry's ear. This was something that she had done since she was a baby, always reaching out to whoever was with her so that she could hold onto their ear. Henry was pouting in his sleep.

Maeve watched her children. At that moment, they were peacefully oblivious to the world and what lay ahead of them for the day. She wanted to pull the covers right up and protect them from everything that would come that day.

"Mommy," Noa mumbled.

"Yes, honey?" she whispered, careful not to wake Henry wake. It wasn't fully light yet, and she didn't want him up earlier than he needed to be.

"What's going to happen today?" she asked.

Maeve reached out slowly and ran her hand over Noa's hair.

"We're going to the church this morning for the funeral. Do you know what that means?"

"It means that we get to see Dad in the coffin, right?"

Maeve nodded. She knew they needed to have this conversation, but that didn't make it any less difficult. This is not how it was supposed to be.

"Yes, we do. And we have to take that time to say goodbye to Dad. You don't have to say it, you can whisper it if you want, or you can just think it. Dad will hear it."

"How will he hear it?"

"From today, your Dad will be our guardian angel, so he'll get to see and hear everything, even if we don't see him."

"Like your Dad, you mean?" Noa looked up at Maeve through her long eyelashes. Jenna was right. Even her daughter's eyelashes were like Spencer's.

"Exactly like that," she smiled.

Maeve sat at the edge of her bed. Noa stood in between her legs while Maeve braided her hair. The girl was brave. Ever since their conversation in bed earlier that morning, she had seen a scared and vulnerable little girl slowly realizing what the day was bringing with it, it seemed to fuel her bravery.

But after she had gone into the bathroom and brushed her teeth, a different Noa walked out. It was as though she had given herself a pep talk in the bathroom mirror and committed to being a big girl that day.

Maeve did her daughter's hair, completing it with a bow before letting her run off.

"We'll be fine," Maeve told herself as she put her pearl necklace on. She brushed her hair and then left her room, glancing at Spencer's side of the bed before she closed the door.

"Mommy!" Henry called as she walked past his room.

"Yes?" she said, peeping her head into the doorway.

William was sitting on Henry's bed as he tucked the boy's shirt into his pants.

"Tie or no tie, Mommy?" Henry asked, straining to grab the tie on the bed but also trying to stand still for his uncle.

"You decide, baby," she said, leaning against his closet. "What do you think?"

"Tie," he said simply, sniffed, and then wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

Maeve locked eyes with William.

"I've got this," he said.

She nodded and left the room. It took everything Maeve had to not run back to her bedroom and cry beneath the covers. She took a deep breath and looked at the height chart that Spencer had done for Henry since they moved into this house.

She smiled, thinking about how she tried to hold Henry straight while Spencer marked his height on the wall.

He was here, in this house. Spencer's memory was etched across everything in the house. And Maeve knew that when all of this was over, she and the children would still have him there – in their home.

Isobel got to the church early. She parked not too far away from the entrance. She wanted to be close enough to see everything but not too close so that she would invade the space for the family.

She took a sip of wine that she had put in her thermos. Wine always calmed her down. It didn't make her tipsy or anything of the sort. Instead, it sort of lulled her body to cooperate with her mind better. She wasn't sure why she was here, sitting in her car dressed in a black satin dress, waiting for the hearse and the family to arrive.

But how could she have stayed away? For years, she tried to keep Spencer away, telling him that he had made amends so long ago that he was forgiven. Because that was the truth, Isobel had forgiven him so long ago that she couldn't imagine anything else. But Spencer kept coming back, unable to cope with the guilt of a mistake from decades before.

Isobel took another sip of her wine. She loved the way each sip brought a sense of warmth throughout her body.

She looked up as the hearse pulled into the designated parking space outside the church, the family car just behind it. She watched as the pallbearers stood in a line, waiting for the signal from the undertaker to carry Spencer inside. Spencer's wife and children got out of the family car.

"She is beautiful," Isobel said aloud, looking at Maeve. When she saw Spencer's daughter, who was carrying a single pink rose, she could see him in her face. The little boy seemed to be the perfect mix of both his parents.

"In a different world, maybe I could have met this family under better circumstances," she said.

Isobel took one final sip of wine and got out of the car.

Maeve waited for the family car to arrive to pick them up. William had gone ahead. He was going to leave his car at the funeral services. He wanted to travel in the hearse.

"One last trip with my brother," he told her sadly before walking out of the front door.

The kids watched a video on Lily's phone while she forced them to eat either cereal or fruit.

"We cannot have you getting sick," Lily told them, tickling Henry under the arm.

Jenna was on the phone with the mother, who was apologizing for the hundredth time that she couldn't make the funeral because traveling alone scared her.

Despite the feelings of sadness and emptiness that were slowly building in Maeve, she loved this – she loved having her family around. When she looked through the window again, she saw that the family car had arrived, pulling into the driveway.

"The car is here," she called.

Jenna squeezed her arm on the way out.

"We'll get through it all together, Mae," she said.

"Together," Maeve repeated, smiling.

The drive to the church was the longest trip for Maeve. The children were quiet, holding tightly onto each other, and Henry gripped Maeve's knee. Jenna sat in front with the driver, she was trying to make polite conversation with him, but he barely registered her questions.

Maeve wondered whether funerals affected him any longer or whether it was just something that he was so used to by this point. She couldn't imagine seeing multiple funerals a day, having to be around grieving families constantly. That type of thing would definitely affect a person's mental and emotional well-being.

When they got to the church, Maeve got out of the car first. Her legs wobbled, and she felt lightheaded for a moment. But then Henry got out and held onto her dress. That was when she had to be strong.

Maeve got in between Noa and Henry, holding their hands tightly as they walked to the hearse. Lily and Jenna were behind Maeve and the children, Lily holding onto Jenna tightly. William stood next to the hearse, right next to his brother.

As they walked to the other side so that the pallbearers would lift Spencer without anybody in the way, Noa pulled a rose from the floral arrangement on the coffin. Maeve had no heart to tell her no to.

The funeral was a blur of standing and greeting people, thanking them for coming and singing hymns that Maeve remembered from her childhood. She wondered whether her children knew the words to them. Noa was making her father proud, she stood up every time Maeve did, and she smiled at whoever wanted to hug her.

Henry, on the other hand, was stuck to Maeve, clinging to her dress or her arm. And when he got tired of having to pull her dress every time she stood up, he went and sat on Jenna, throwing his arms around her neck as he got comfortable.

Maeve mouthed a silent 'thank you' to her sister.

She was surprised when Rick, Spencer's lawyer, greeted her, sympathizing with her and the children. Maeve had only met him once, just before they had gotten married when they were finalizing their affairs as legally single people, ready to become one.

Behind Rick was a tall woman that Maeve had never seen before. She wore a long satin dress, and she also had pearls strung around her neck. She gave Maeve a small smile and gently squeezed her hand as she walked by.

Maeve assumed that she worked with Spencer because it seemed that the entire company had come out to bid farewell to him. If there hadn't been a steady line already formed behind Rick and the woman, Maeve would have asked who she was.

Isobel stood by the church stairs for a while. She wanted to go inside – she knew that the service had already begun. She wasn't sure what she was waiting for until she saw the lawyer, Rick Morgan, walking toward her.

"You came," he said.

"I did. I couldn't not," she said.

"Have you been inside yet?"

"No, but I want to," she replied.

"Let's go together, then, Isobel," he said.

Rick extended his arm for her to take as they walked up the stairs to the church. Isobel took it, grateful that he was there. She didn't know him well, but it was better than trying to navigate everything by herself.

They followed the line of people wanting to pay their respects. When they reached the front line, Rick hugged Spencer's wife and sympathized with her. When it was her turn, Isobel smiled at her and gently squeezed her hand. It was the least she could do.

*

When they got to the cemetery, Maeve wanted to collapse into a ball and cry. She was so tired of thanking people for coming, tired of hugging them, and just, overall, tired of the day. But when she looked at Noa, still smiling, still greeting people, still holding tightly onto the rose, she became stronger.

The pastor said his final words and the music played as the coffin was lowered into the earth. Henry was asleep on William, and Lily had her arm around Noa. Jenna stood a little further away. Their mother was on the other side of a video call so that she could see the final act.

Maeve looked around, wanting to see who had come to the burial and stayed. She saw Rick again and the woman from the church with the satin dress. She assumed that maybe the woman was his wife and not someone who worked with Spencer.

When they got home, the house was full of people helping themselves to food and drinks. Maeve tried her hardest to be a hostess to them all, but she was just so tired. Her bones ached for a long bath and a cup of tea in bed. She wanted to run upstairs with her children, get them out of their formal clothes and into pajamas, and to her bedroom where they could watch cartoons under the covers.

"You okay?" Jenna asked her, startling her out of her daydream.

"I am, but I'm just so tired. I want to get these shoes off and get out of this dress," she replied.

"You can escape if you want," Jenna said. "I'll hold the fort down here with Lily and William. Take the kids upstairs. I'll bring some food up."

Maeve nodded. She appreciated the gesture more than she could say. She went off searching for the children, and when she turned the corner, she saw Rick and the woman again.

How nice of them to stay until the end, she thought.

Two weeks after the funeral, Maeve and the children were settling into their new routines. She was grateful that all of this had happened during the school holidays, so neither of the children had missed out on any of that. Spencer hated it when they missed school as well.

Maeve sat on the floor in front of the coffee table with her laptop. Noa and Henry were sprawled across the couches watching a movie, and she wanted to catch up with her emails, but she wanted to be close to them, too.

While scrolling through the list of unread emails, Maeve came across one from Rick. It was sent a few hours before. Maeve opened the email and read it.

Her hands shook as she read the email; she didn't expect any of it. She picked up her phone and conference called Lily and William.

"I'm just going to make a phone call," she told the children as she walked into the kitchen.

"Bring back some ice cream, please, Mommy," Henry said.

"Hi, Mae," Lily's voice rang in her ear a moment later.

"Hi," she said at the same time William joined the call.

"Listen, I just got an email from Spencer's lawyer. He wants to read the will this Saturday. He said that I should reach out to you, but he will also email you guys."

"What? Already?" William asked. "Isn't it too soon?"

"That's what I thought," Maeve replied.

"Maybe it's just because Spencer had everything in order, so it was a very easy process," Lily said. "But don't worry, we'll be there."

"Yes, we'll drive in on Friday night and spend some time with the kids," William said.

Maeve opened the freezer and took a tub of ice cream out for the children.

On Saturday, all three of them drove to the lawyer's office in silence. Maeve knew that they were all thinking the same thing. That the reading of the will had made everything final. This was it. Once the will was read and all the formalities were over, it was just that – over.

But she also hated that they were being called in to see what Spencer had left to each of them. It made her feel like they were sharks circling hungrily when Spencer hadn't even been gone that long. She knew that whatever she and Spencer had, they shared.

If anything, the only big issue was transferring the house to her name – that was one thing that they hadn't discussed. But it didn't bother Maeve. They were going to be together and live in that house forever.

When they got to the lawyer's office, Maeve stood in the doorway and saw the mahogany office of dreams – similar to Spencer's office below the staircase at home. Maeve didn't know what she was going to do about that. But Spencer had always wanted to have a 'mahogany office'; he said that it was something he had read about and seen in movies, and he always wanted his own.

But when Maeve stepped into the office, she saw the woman from the funeral. The woman with the satin dress who walked around with the lawyer. Who was she?

"Are we ready?" Rick asked everyone as he took his seat behind the large desk.

Isobel felt Maeve's gaze on her from the moment she saw her walk into the office. She couldn't blame her. To her, Isobel was invading a private family moment with her presence. Isobel was nothing to her or her kids.

She glanced at Maeve, whose eyebrows were furrowed as she whispered something to Spencer's sister.

"Can we begin?" the brother asked.

*

"Do you know who she is?" Maeve whispered to Lily.

Lily shook her head and bent to get her bag, pulling a water bottle from it.

"I don't know her, but she looks familiar somehow," Lily whispered.

"Can we begin?" William asked from Maeve's other side. She knew that he was nervous. He didn't want to be here. He had tried to escape it, saying he wanted to stay with Henry instead. But Maeve and Lily had insisted that they needed his support.

Rick cleared his throat and put his glasses on. He opened the file containing Spencer's will.

Maeve listened to everything in a daze. Much of what Rick was saying was in fluent legalese, so she understood very little of it.

"All my finances will go to my wife, Maeve," Rick read.

Maeve nodded. She knew this.

"The Martin family cabin will go to my siblings, William and Lily Martin. My only request is that it stay in the family," Rick read.

William reached Maeve and squeezed Lily's hand. She knew that they were thinking about their childhood spent in that cabin. She loved Spencer even more for leaving it to them.

"I also leave my mother's pendant to Maeve. Darling, we all know that it's not expensive, but she adored it for decades, and you loved it since the moment you met her and set eyes on it," Rick read further.

Maeve and Lily laughed together. They both knew that Maeve had been smitten with Elizabeth's necklace since she met her.

"This old thing?" the old woman used to say. "One day, you'll have it. But I'll leave it to Spencer when I die," she always laughed.

"And my house, the property at 19 New Haven Drive, will go to Ms Isobel Roberts," Rick read and sighed.

Maeve felt as though her stomach had escaped through her abdomen. She had no idea what she had just heard.

She struggled to breathe, gasping for air.

"Here," Lily said, rubbing her back. "Have some water."

"What in the name of God are you talking about?" she could hear William asking the lawyer.

The world became hazy, and Maeve had to close her eyes and drown everything out. The only thing she was aware of was Lily rubbing her back and William raising his voice at Rick.

When Maeve finally opened her eyes, the woman, Isobel, was gone.

After seeing Spencer's family's reaction, Isobel had to leave the office.

She picked up her bag and left quickly before anybody could stop her. She had every intention of telling the family the truth and relinquishing ownership of the property right then and there, making it easier for Rick to process everything.

But when she saw what that final line had done to the family, she panicked.

She could barely hold herself together, let alone explain everything to the family.

So, she got into her and drove to the nearest bakery. She needed to think.

*

After getting Isobel's contact details from the lawyer, Maeve signed off to say that she had been there when the will was read and that all was in order. But nothing was in order. Who was Isobel, and why did she get their property?

"William," she said when they were in the car. "Spencer spoke to you about everything. Did he mention an Isobel or anything about any other woman?"

"No, not at all, Mae! I would do anything to protect Spencer, but I would not hold onto a secret like that," he said.

From the way he gripped the steering wheel – so tight that his knuckles were white, Maeve knew that he was upset. Suddenly, it felt as though everything they knew about Spencer was different.

"We'll get to the bottom of this, one way or the other," he said.

"What do you think, Lily?" Maeve asked her.

"I don't know what to think. I believe that there's an explanation. I do. And Will's right. We'll find out what it is," she said, holding Maeve's shoulder from the backseat.

They had spent most of the day trying to get hold of Isobel. Either Rick had given them an incorrect number, or Isobel was not answering their calls.

Maeve didn't know what to do. She sat at the bottom of the stairs, overwhelmed. She looked around the house that suddenly wasn't their home anymore. What had Spencer been doing?

She touched the pendant around her neck. Since they had gotten home, she ran upstairs, took it out of their jewelry drawer, and put it on. Lily smiled when she saw it.

"Are you sure you don't want it? It did belong to your Mom," Maeve said.

"No, of course not," Lily exclaimed. "It was always going to be yours because you loved it so much. And what sister would I be if I took it away from you?"

*

When the kids were asleep, the adults sat in the living room to discuss everything further.

"Just take the cabin, Mae," William said. "It will obviously still be in the family, and you can stay there knowing it is ours. We don't know anything about this woman. She could come here right now and make us leave."

"I agree," Lily said.

"It's okay, you guys. If it comes to the worst, we'll live in the cabin for a while. But I have savings, and there's all the money with Spencer as well. We can rent somewhere or something," Maeve said.

And as she said it, as she voiced her thoughts, her voice broke off, and she began to cry. She hadn't felt this hurt before. The betrayal was more profound than that of anything else. Her heart hurt more now than when she found out that Spencer had passed on.

She couldn't take this anymore.

"Let's go make some tea," Lily said.

Isobel had no idea why she was sitting outside Spencer's house in the dark. From the car, she could see the lights were on downstairs. She had wanted to wait a little longer, maybe a day or two, before coming here. But then she imagined how she would feel – if she were in Maeve's shoes.

This wasn't okay. She needed to come clean.

Isobel walked up to the front door and knocked. She did it quickly before she could change her mind and go back home.

Spencer's brother opened the door. His face darkened when he saw her.

"What do you want?" he asked her.

"To explain," she said.

"Well, come on it. But you had better explain it all."

When William entered the dining room with Isobel, Maeve had to sit down quickly before her feet gave way. She hadn't expected the woman to show up, especially after she had ignored all the phone calls.

Lily poured tea for them all, and William demanded that Isobel speak.

"I've known Spencer for a very long time," Isobel said. "Long before you were married to him, even."

Maeve felt her chest tighten. She didn't want to be here. But she wanted to know the truth.

"We met when he was almost done with University. But he was working there, too."

"I remember that," Lily said. "He was working his way through University. He wanted to tutor to get an amount off his tuition."

"Yes, exactly that," Isobel said. "I've been a lecturer since I graduated with my master's, so I was there too. My husband had fetched me one night because I was on campus very late, grading papers. Spencer had been at a party with one of the fraternities, and we all seemed to leave campus together. At least Spencer was driving behind us," Isobel paused.

Her eyes seemed as though they were of some other time.

Maeve looked to her to continue.

"At one point, we began to drive slower because there was a lot of traffic. I don't know what happened to Spencer's car or what he saw, but he crashed straight into us. My husband's side of the car took the biggest impact, and he died in the hospital shortly after."

Maeve's breath caught in her chest.

"Yes," William said. "I remember that he came home and was crying about an accident to our mother, but I don't remember anything about other people being involved."

"He didn't want to say anything about it. And I understood he was so young, barely able to consume alcohol, but there was enough in his system that night. Anyway, after that, Spencer felt guilty for everything. He demanded to take my details that night at the hospital. He followed us there because he wanted to know how my husband would be."

Nobody said anything.

"And then, after some time, he began to send me money. He said that it was his duty because my husband had died. I know that he was speaking from guilt. At first, I accepted because of my own grief. I had to take some time off, and that money changed everything," Isobel sighed.

"One night, he came to me, and he was distraught. He gave me a folder with a copy of his will, saying he didn't have much but would leave his property to me. Even when he moved places, he still had me in the will. He just kept changing the address of where he was to match the will."

Maeve picked up her mug and drank deeply from it. She didn't know what else to do. Both William and Lily were frozen, hanging onto Isobel's every word. And Maeve knew, deep in her heart, that the woman was telling the truth. It was the way her eyes and body reacted when she told them the story.

Nobody could fake a reaction like that.

"Years later, I begged him to stop with the payments. I was doing well and back on my feet. And that's when he told me about you, Maeve. He said that he had met someone who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. And that he wanted to tell you everything, but he just couldn't. He was terrified that it would change how you looked at him."

"So," Isobel continued. "The years went on, and he didn't change the will. Please, I am not contesting anything. Take it back, take it all back. I've left emails for Rick. Instructions to move the house back into your name, Maeve. I don't want any of this."

After, Lily made them a fresh pot of tea, and they sat around and spoke more. Maeve still had so many questions, but she felt unsure of them all, especially after feeling that Spencer had potentially cheated on her. If anything, this strengthened her love for him – this was selfless, even if it was fueled by the guilt of an accident so many years ago.

"Your husband was an exceptional man, Maeve," Isobel told her as she walked her to her car. "Please, don't think bad of him because he wanted to help me. He was a man desperate to make amends for something that I had forgiven him for a long time ago. And you know what? That necklace looks beautiful on you."

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