After a while, Lauren pulled herself together. Her voice was hard again.

“This doesn't change anything legally,” she said. “She was seventy-nine. Old. Upset. Anyone could argue she wasn't thinking clearly. We could still contest it.”

Mr. Reed sighed. He turned his computer screen around.

“Your mother thought you might say that too,” he said. “She signed her will in front of two witnesses. And she asked me to make a recording.”

He pressed play.

There was Mom. Sitting at her own kitchen table, in her blue cardigan, with the crossword in front of her. Clear-eyed. Smiling.

“Hello, Lauren,” she said to the camera. “Hello, Kyle. Today is the fourteenth of June. I've just finished the Sunday crossword in pen in twenty-two minutes, which is faster than either of you could do it.”

I laughed through my tears. I couldn't help it.

“I know exactly what I'm doing,” Mom went on. “I'm leaving my house to Claire. Not because I'm confused. Because I'm paying attention.”

She looked straight into the camera.

“If you take your sister to court over this, you'll be taking me to court too. And I'd think very hard about what your father would say.”

She smiled.

“Now go and have lunch together. All three of you. Somewhere nice. Claire will pay. She can afford it now.”

The video ended.

Kyle started to cry.