Martha Grey arrived on a Wednesday afternoon, exactly seventeen minutes ahead of schedule, carrying a suitcase that had seen better decades and a Tupperware container that she clutched to her chest like a shield.
Lucas had been preparing for this visit for two weeks. He had compiled a forty-three-page document covering everything from Martha's flight details to her dietary restrictions to the seventeen topics of conversation he anticipated she might raise. He had briefed Sophie on appropriate topics to avoid—his father's death, his years as primary caregiver, the six years he'd spent waiting for me, his emotional development post-Eleanor—and Sophie had responded by creating a PowerPoint titled Martha Grey: Conversation Protocols and Approved Discussion Topics. It had twelve slides and a flowchart.
