what came next.
The next morning, I called the collector Marcus had mentioned — a man named Alan who ran an antique tool shop two towns over. I didn’t call to yell. I called to ask, calmly, exactly what he’d bought and for how much.
Alan was mortified when I explained the situation. He hadn’t known the tools were stolen from a grieving daughter rather than sold by their rightful owner. Without hesitation, he offered to sell everything back to me at exactly what he’d paid, no markup, no questions asked.
