The unknown number belonged to a title company. The message was brief and businesslike, but it stopped my breath. “This message confirms a pending deed transfer request on the coastal property in question, submitted by Camille. A conflicting recorded interest has been flagged. Please have your representative contact us.” Camille had actually tried to record the beach house in her own name, based on a transfer my father supposedly signed. What she did not know was that you cannot transfer what you do not own, and my father had never owned it. My mother’s trust had held the house since before she died.

I forwarded the title company’s message to Delphine, my hands steady now. Within minutes she called me, and her voice carried the calm certainty of someone who had been waiting years for this exact moment. “Gabriella,” she said, “your father couldn’t have signed that house to anyone. It was never his. And I can prove it, on paper, tomorrow.”