The Glen View house was sold after the beam was replaced with steel.
The Prescotts resolved their claim with Glenn and Mom.
Kelsey had signed none of the disputed documents and was not charged with anything.
I heard she had started cleaning houses for money.
Mom moved into a rental.
I did not ask where.
At the office, I removed the Glen View dining-room project from our website.
That hurt more than I expected.
I loved the design.
The proportions were right.
The window placement worked.
The original material palette was one of my better combinations.
But the finished house carried my name alongside work I had not approved.
I could not show it as mine.
Harbor House gave me something else to work on.
The long table became the center of the project.
Reclaimed white oak.
Twenty seats.
Nothing dramatic.
No marble wall.
No sponsored tablescape.
No camera angle.
On opening night, the children made their own place cards.
Crayon.
Markers.
Uneven letters.
A nine-year-old named Maya stood over the table arranging them.
She held one card, looked around, and pointed at me.
“You.”
“Me?”
“You sit here.”
She pulled out the chair at the head of the table.
The place card said DINA in purple crayon.
I sat down.
Maya ran off to find someone else’s name.
A few minutes later, the front door opened.
Kelsey stepped inside carrying a bakery box.
She had no phone in her hand.
I stood.
For one second, she looked uncertain.
Then she held up the box.
“I brought pastries.”
“Good.”
I took her coat.
Beside the wall was the velvet chair from Glen View.
I had brought it to Harbor House weeks earlier because we needed an extra chair during planning meetings.
I pulled it toward the table.
“For you.”
Kelsey looked at it.
Then at me.
She sat.
Maya immediately opened the bakery box without asking permission.
“Can I pass these out?”
Kelsey laughed.
“Apparently.”
Maya carried the box around the table.
Nobody filmed her.
Nobody adjusted the light.
Nobody checked whether the pastries matched the room.
Children talked over one another.
Someone spilled water.
One place card fell onto the floor.
Kelsey bent down and picked it up.
Then she put it back in front of the child whose name was written across it.
I watched her sit beside the children while the table filled.
This time, there was a chair for both of us.
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Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction created for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.