Chương 5
Dad ignored him.
"Johnny found the original one."
Mom said, "That document was superseded."
"Was it?"
"You know it was."
"Then why couldn't we find the replacement?"
She stared at him.
I opened the folder and searched through pages until I found the tab the accountant had marked with a yellow flag.
There it was.
Hale Family Holdings, LLC.
Operating Agreement.
My name appeared under Beneficial Interests.
So did Jared's.
Mom lunged for the folder.
I stepped backward.
She stopped herself before touching me.
"That is private family business."
I looked at her.
"You came here asking me for forty thousand dollars."
"This has nothing to do with that."
"It has everything to do with it."
Jared reached for the document.
"Let me see."
I hesitated.
Then I handed him the copy.
He read the first page slowly.
His lips moved over some of the legal language.
"What does forty-nine percent beneficial ownership mean?"
Dad sat down again.
Mom answered too quickly.
"It doesn't mean what you think."
Jared looked at me.
"Naomi?"
I found the paragraph the accountant had explained over the phone.
"It means the company you've been told belongs to Mom and Dad may mostly belong to us."
Jared stared at the page.
Then he laughed.
This time the sound cracked halfway through.
"My restaurant owes the IRS, and I'm standing here begging my sister for money while I own half of their company?"
"Not half."
Mom's voice was sharp again.
"Do not start saying things you don't understand."
He turned toward her.
"You flew me here to ask Naomi for forty grand."
"Because your accounts are frozen."
"You told me you couldn't help."
"We can't."
"You own three houses."
"Assets are not cash."
"Apparently some of the assets aren't even yours."
Dad covered his face with one hand.
Mom's voice dropped.
"Be very careful."
Jared looked at her for a long moment.
Then something ugly entered his expression.
"No."
She blinked.
"No what?"
"No, I'm done being careful."
He waved the document.
"You've spent my whole life telling me I can't manage money."
"You can't."
"Maybe."
He nodded.
"Maybe I'm terrible with money."
His voice shook.
"But at least now I know whose money I was terrible with."
Mom slapped him.
The sound was flat and startling.
Jared froze.
So did I.
Dad stood.
"Susan."
She looked at her own hand.
For half a second, regret crossed her face.
Then she straightened.
"Don't speak to me that way."
Jared touched his cheek.
He didn't shout.
That made it worse.
"You missed Gemma's funeral."
Mom's face tightened.
"You don't get to use that now."
"I was there with you."
His voice dropped.
"I missed it too."
He looked at me.
The shame in his face was almost unbearable because I had wanted him to feel it.
Now that he did, it gave me nothing.
"I could've come back," he said.
I couldn't answer.
He looked down.
"I didn't."
Mom made an impatient sound.
"Can we focus on the actual problem?"
I stared at her.
There it was.
The machinery still running.
Even now.
Even with Dad unraveling and Jared turning against her and Johnny's investigation open on my table, she believed she could decide which problem counted.
I closed the folder.
"The actual problem is that you used my identity to transfer assets you didn't own."
Mom lifted her chin.
"And what exactly do you intend to do about it?"
Dad whispered, "Susan, don't."
She kept her eyes on me.
"You think one grieving widow with a folder is going to dismantle a company that has operated for twenty years?"
I felt Gemma's dolphin keychain in the pocket of Johnny's sweatshirt.
I had put it there that morning without knowing why.
My fingers closed around its hard plastic shape.
"I don't know."
That answer surprised her.
I stood.
"I haven't decided yet."
Her confidence returned a fraction.
"Good."
"But Johnny did."
The fraction vanished.
Dad looked at me.
"What do you mean?"
I opened the folder one more time and took out the sealed envelope I had not mentioned.
Johnny's handwriting covered the front.
For Naomi, if they ever come asking for money.
No one spoke.
My mother stared at the envelope.
Then she looked toward the front door as if, for the first time since arriving, she wished she had never knocked.
My mother reached for the envelope before I could move it away.
I pulled it against my chest.
"Don't."
Her hand stopped in midair.
"I wasn't going to take it."
"You were."
She gave me a look I had known since childhood, the one that said my perception was the problem.
"Fine."
Dad remained near the window.
Jared had picked up his phone again, but he wasn't looking at it now.
He was staring at the handwriting on the envelope.
"Did Johnny know about my trust too?"
"I don't know."
"Open it."
Mom turned on him.
"No."
Jared looked at her.
"Why not?"
"Because your sister has had enough for one day."
That almost made me laugh again.
She was trying to protect me now.
Not from pain.
From information.
I broke the seal.
The paper inside was folded twice.
Johnny's handwriting was neat at the top and progressively messier toward the bottom, as if he had started carefully and finished angry.
Naomi, if you're reading this because they came asking you for money, then I was right about one thing I hoped I was wrong about.
My mother's face tightened.
I kept reading silently.
"Read it out loud," Jared said.
I didn't want to.
The words belonged to me.
Then I saw his name halfway down the page.
I looked at him.
"Some of it."
Mom moved toward the door.
Dad said, "Stay."
She froze.
I read.
"Your parents have been moving money through Hale Family Holdings for years."
My voice sounded too flat.
May you like
"Most of what I found is complicated enough that I don't want you confronting them without a lawyer."
Mom scoffed softly.
