The Will

Written for MLMM Monday Wordle.
The prompt words are shown below.
Here’s where they took me.

default, family, generations, glue, memories,
miss, welcomed, loved, accepted, included, and divorce

The dinner table had always been the glue …. or so Devorah believed. Three generations had eaten at it: her parents, then she and Arthur, and now their grown children, who hadn’t sat together since the divorce.

Tonight, they had no choice. The will demanded it.

Morgan arrived first, kissing his mother’s cheek out of default obligation rather than love. Sierra came twenty minutes late, welcomed by no one, her eyes scanning the room for understanding and finding none.

“Watch …. she’ll get the house,” Morgan said before the attorney had even opened her briefcase. Not a question. An accusation aimed squarely at his sister.

“I didn’t ask for anything,” Sierra said quietly.

“You never have to. You’re the favorite. You’ve always been the favorite.”

Devorah pressed her hands flat on the table …. this table, scarred with memories: homework, holidays, arguments not unlike this one. She had loved both her children equally and, apparently, convinced neither of them.

“Your father wanted you both to be included in this,” she said. “He wanted you to feel accepted. As a family.”

“Dad’s gone,” Morgan said,“and we don’t even miss him. Families like ours don’t survive that.”

“I miss him,” Sierra whispered.

“You’re such a liar!” Morgan shouted.

Outside, lightning shattered the late afternoon sky. Inside, everyone fell silent; something older and quieter threatened to break …. the thing families inherit without asking, carry without knowing, and only recognize when it’s finally gone.

The attorney cleared her throat.