Chapter 6 – The Reading

The will’s reading, three weeks after Henry’s funeral, delivered a shock neither sibling had anticipated, the straightforward division of assets they’d both quietly expected replaced instead by a condition that left both of them staring at Ms. Reed in stunned disbelief.

“A joint operating requirement,” Audrey repeated slowly, once Ms. Reed had finished reading the provision aloud. “For a full year. With the entire ranch going to a conservation trust if we can’t reach agreement by the deadline.”

“That’s exactly right,” Ms. Reed confirmed. “Your father was quite specific about the reasoning, which I’m required to share alongside the provision itself.”

She read Henry’s accompanying letter aloud, explaining, in his own careful words, the hospital hallway argument he’d overheard, his fear for the relationship between his two children, and his hope that a forced year of collaboration might repair what months of tension and inheritance anxiety had damaged.

Colin sat in stunned silence, the financial relief he’d desperately needed suddenly contingent on an entire year of forced cooperation with a sister he’d been actively arguing with for months. Audrey, equally stunned, found herself facing the same uncomfortable requirement from the opposite financial position.

“He really thought this was necessary,” Audrey said quietly, more to herself than to anyone else in the room. “He really thought we’d needed to be forced into this.”

“I think,” Ms. Reed said gently, “he was probably right.”