My sister called at 6:30 in the morning and told me our father had died during the night. The problem was that Dad was sitting three feet away from me, wearing his navy robe, drinking my coffee, and stealing bacon from my plate. For several seconds, I simply stared at Vanessa’s name glowing on my phone. My older sister almost never called before noon. She especially never called me that early unless she wanted something, so when the phone started vibrating across the kitchen table, I assumed there had been some kind of emergency. I had no idea the emergency was going to be completely invented. Dad reached across the table for another strip of bacon while I answered. “Vanessa?” For the first couple of seconds, I heard nothing but a car engine and the steady click of a turn signal. Then she said it. “Natalie, Dad died last night.” My hand stopped halfway to my coffee. Across from me, Dad stopped chewing.

Then he called his attorney.

This time, no speaker.

He walked into the living room and spoke quietly for almost ten minutes.

When he came back, he looked older.

Not frightened.

Just deeply tired.

“What?” I asked.

He sat down.

“Vanessa called him yesterday too.”

My stomach tightened.

“What did she ask?”

“Whether a beneficiary could access estate property before probate if there was an emergency.”

I stared at him.

“She told your attorney you were dead?”

“No.”

Dad looked toward the window.

“She said I was unreachable and there might be a medical situation.”

“Why didn’t he call you?”

“He did.”

Dad pulled his cell phone from his robe pocket.

There was no missed call.

That was when I remembered something.

The previous afternoon, Dad’s phone had stopped receiving calls for almost two hours.

He had complained about the service.

We restarted it.

Then it worked again.

At the time, neither of us thought anything of it.

Now Dad did.

He called his carrier.

The conversation took twenty-three minutes.

When it ended, his expression was unreadable.

“What happened?”

“Someone tried to move my number to another device yesterday.”

My skin prickled.

“Can Vanessa do that?”