The words lingered in the air, heavy, final. With a long, drawn-out breath, he covered the picture carefully, placing it face down on the desk as if turning his back on her memory entirely. Then, with a slow, deliberate movement, he rose from his chair.
He knew what was coming next. The family meeting. The birthday celebration his mother had been planning for weeks. He knew she was going to make the announcement, the announcement that would shake the family to its core: naming the heir to everything they had built.
And without being told, Jerry's father already knew what was coming. Deep down in his chest, the bitter certainty had been gnawing at him for days his mother would choose Jerry. She would place that title, that power, that honor into Jerry's hands instead of his.
