Chapter 6 - My Father’s Letter
The deputy would not let Brooke hand me anything until ownership of the document case was clarified.
Ethan called his father.
His father confirmed the case belonged to Mercer Capital.
The deputy took custody of it.
But the letter addressed to Mom appeared personal.
Mom said it was hers.
So we ended up standing beneath fluorescent lights in a highway patrol office while my mother held a twenty-three-year-old envelope that had apparently survived longer than the truth.
“I didn’t know Brooke had this,” she whispered.
Brooke sat in a plastic chair with her arms crossed.
“She found it in my desk last year,” Mom continued.
I looked at her.
“You hid a letter from Dad for twenty-three years?”
“It was private.”
“About my trust?”
Mom began crying again.
I had spent my life responding to her tears.
Tonight they irritated me.
“Read it.”
“Claire.”
“Read it.”
Her fingers shook as she unfolded the paper.
Michael’s handwriting covered two pages.
Mom read silently.
“No.”
Grandma stepped closer.
“Linda.”
Mom looked at me.
“I can’t.”
I held out my hand.
She gave me the pages.
The first lines nearly stopped my heart.
Lin,
If the doctors are right and this happens again, I need you to know what I want done for Claire.
I swallowed.
My father had suffered a warning aneurysm six months before the one that killed him.
He knew.
Or at least feared.
I kept reading.
The trust is hers. All of it. I don’t want her raised thinking money makes her important. Let her grow up normal. Use only what you need for school, health, and the house if necessary. When she is old enough to understand responsibility, tell her.
My eyes blurred.
Then came the sentence Brooke had apparently built her entire defense around.
If you ever truly need help, I trust you to use your judgment. You’re her mother. I know you’ll always put her first.
I looked up.
Brooke leaned forward.
“See?”
I stared at her.
“See what?”
“Dad gave Mom permission.”
“No.”
“Yes, he did.”
“He said use judgment if she needed help.”
“Exactly.”
“To put me first.”
Brooke scoffed.
“Families help each other.”
Grandma spoke.
“Not by stealing millions.”
Mom wiped tears from her face.
“You don’t understand what happened.”
“Then explain it.”
For once, she did.
After Richard Cole died, Mom had been left with debt.
A lot of it.
Richard’s construction company had failed.
Tax liens.
Unpaid suppliers.
A personal guarantee on a commercial loan.
The house was at risk.
Brooke was thirteen.
Mom was terrified.
“So I sold the first parcel,” she said.
“For 1.8 million.”
“I paid the debt.”
“All of it?”
“No.”
“What did you do with the rest?”
She looked away.
“Invested.”
“In what?”
“Brooke’s education. The house. Retirement.”
“That wasn’t your retirement account.”
“I was trying to keep the family stable.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Claire was the family too.”
Mom flinched.
“The second sale?” I asked.
She hesitated.
“Brooke wanted to start her company.”
“You gave her trust money.”
“She had talent.”
“You gave her almost three hundred thousand dollars.”
“She promised to repay it.”
“Did she?”
Silence.
Brooke suddenly stood.
“You benefited too!”
I turned.
“How?”
“You had college paid for.”
“Forty thousand dollars.”
“You grew up in Mom’s house.”
“The house Dad’s life insurance paid off.”
Brooke’s face flushed.
“You always act like you’re morally superior.”
“No. I’m trying to understand why you built a business with money stolen from me and then spent years calling me unsuccessful.”
“I never called you unsuccessful.”
“You told Ethan I begged you for money.”
She looked away.
“And then you forged my signature.”
Her head snapped back.
“I did not.”
Marcus had arrived twenty minutes earlier after I called him.
Now he spoke from behind me.
“We have electronic records connecting the filing to your attorney’s account.”
Brooke paled.
“My lawyer handles everything.”
“Did you authorize the release?”
“No.”
“Good,” Marcus said calmly. “Then your attorney committed serious fraud without your knowledge, and I’m sure you’ll be eager to provide your devices.”
She said nothing.
The deputy looked between us.
“This sounds like a civil matter with potential criminal issues. I’m going to document what we recovered.”
Brooke sat back down.
The energy had changed.
She was no longer the bride whose wedding had been ruined.
She was a woman calculating exposure.
Ethan looked at her.
“Did you forge Claire’s signature?”
“No.”
“Did you know your mother did nine years ago?”
Brooke stared at him.
He nodded slowly.
“You did.”
“I found out later.”
“How much later?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Last year.”
“And instead of telling Claire, you used it?”
“I didn’t use anything!”
He pointed toward the evidence case.
“You were trying to sell her property.”
“For the family.”
“For nine hundred thousand dollars to your LLC.”
Brooke went silent.
Mom looked at her.
“What LLC?”
For the first time, genuine confusion appeared on Mom’s face.
“Brooke?”
My sister closed her eyes.
And suddenly I realized Mom did not know everything either.
“You told me the consulting fee would go back into the family accounts,” Mom said.
Brooke’s jaw tightened.
“What family accounts?” I asked.
Mom shook her head.
“Nothing.”
“Mom.”
Brooke snapped, “Stop talking.”
Grandma looked at her.
“You stole from your mother too, didn’t you?”
Brooke laughed.
But her eyes filled.
“This is insane.”
Mom stared at her daughter.
“The sale was twelve million.”
Brooke said nothing.
“Mercer Capital agreed to twelve because you told me Claire’s trust had tax complications.”
Silence.
“And you told me we would receive fifteen.”
My head turned sharply.
“What?”
Marcus stepped forward.
“Linda, what do you mean?”
Mom looked sick.
“Brooke said there was a separate three-million-dollar family settlement.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“There wasn’t.”
Mom slowly turned to Brooke.
“You lied to me.”
Brooke’s tears came instantly.
“I was going to fix everything.”
“With what?”
“The development would make money.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Brooke stood again.
“I am tired of being the one nobody believes in!”
I almost laughed.
“This entire family financed your life.”
“Because you got everything!”
“I didn’t even know I had it!”
“That’s the point!”
The scream echoed through the small office.
Everyone froze.
Brooke realized what she had said.
I stared at her.
“The point?”
Her breathing became ragged.
“You were always going to get everything.”
“Dad’s property?”
“Grandma’s house.”
My eyes moved to Grandma.
Brooke kept going.
“The lake house. Her investments. Everything.”
Grandma’s face became unreadable.
Mom whispered, “Brooke, stop.”
But she could not.
Years of resentment were pouring out now.
“Claire got Michael’s money. Claire got Grandma. Claire got everyone’s sympathy because her father died. Claire got to be the strong one and the good one and the one everybody trusts.”
I stared at her.
“You think my father dying was an advantage?”
Brooke’s face crumpled.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“You were jealous that my father died?”
“No!”
“You were jealous that Grandma helped me grieve him?”
Brooke covered her face.
I suddenly felt exhausted.
Not angry.
Finished.
I folded Dad’s letter.
“You could’ve had every dollar.”
She looked up.
“What?”
“If you had come to me and said you were drowning, I probably would have helped you.”
Brooke stared at me.
“That’s the saddest part.”
I placed the letter in my purse.
“I would have helped.”
Then Grandma said something that changed the entire conversation.
“Brooke is wrong about my estate.”
Brooke looked at her.
Grandma continued.
“I am not leaving everything to Claire.”
Mom exhaled.
Brooke almost smiled.
Then Grandma added:
“I changed my will six months ago.”
May you like
Her eyes settled on Brooke.
“And you are no longer in it at all.”
