That evening, my best friend Hannah came round with a bottle of wine and a face like thunder.

“Have you seen the group chat?” she asked.

There were two group chats now. The old one, Anniversary Crew, had gone silent. And there was a new one I wasn't in. Hannah showed me her screen.

Did you see her face at dinner?? 😂

Ten years of free rent. Daniel's a saint.

Vanessa is SO much more his level tbh.

Twelve people. People I'd cooked Christmas dinner for. People whose children I'd babysat. “I left,” Hannah said. “I told them they should be ashamed.” She poured two glasses. “Grace, you can't let them walk all over you. Get a lawyer. Fight him for half.”

“I have a lawyer.”

“Then fight!”

Hannah had stood beside me at my wedding. She'd held Leo the day he was born. She was the only person who'd called me after that dinner.

So I told her.

She read my father's letter twice. Then the share certificate. Then she put her glass down very slowly.

“Sixty-two per cent?”

“Sixty-two per cent.”

“And he doesn't know?”

“He's never asked.”

Hannah laughed so hard she had to hold on to the table.

“Oh, Grace,” she said, wiping her eyes. “Friday is going to be the best day of my life.”