Helen looked at the floor, then at her sister, and chose the voice she used when a process needed to be fair and also finished. "None of us wants a war. So we make a peace now, while we can still stand each other. Whatever the will says, whenever it says it, the three of us sell the house and divide it evenly. No favorites. No punishments. No one gets to be the child who was loved most in a document. We put it in writing between us. We stick to it."
"Mother is alive in a bed down the hall," Lydia said.
"That is why we can say it without standing over her grave," Helen said. "I am trying to be decent."
Mark nodded too quickly. "Equal shares. Sell it. Clean. If she leaves it to one of us, that one sells and splits. If she leaves it to all of us, we sell and split. If she leaves it to the cat—"
"There is no cat," Lydia said.