I married my high school sweetheart at seventy-three to honor his final wish—but after his funeral, his lawyer came to my door and said, “You walked straight into his trap.”

the one that finally brought me back to him.

On top lay a handwritten note in his careful script.

I looked up at Walter, my throat tight, tears sliding down my cheeks.

“I don’t understand.”

“Read it, Nancy. He wanted you to hear it in his own words.”

Thomas had written that Aunt Margaret had been a customer at his father’s hardware store for 40 years, and continue reading …