Chương 5
“How much debt?”
“Manageable.”
“How much?”
“Ethan, this is not the tone of a son trying to protect his family.”
“It’s the tone of a member asking the manager for records.”
Brooke said, “There’s a refinance.”
Lorraine looked at her.
Brooke’s face reddened. “He’s going to see it.”
“What refinance?” Ethan asked.
Lorraine folded her hands.
“The existing line had to be renewed.”
“On the mansion?”
“On the company.”
“How much?”
“Just over one million.”
Ethan laughed once. It had no humor in it.
Marisol said, “Was there unanimous member consent?”
Lorraine’s eyes remained on Ethan. “There was consent.”
“Mine?”
“Electronic.”
“I never gave it.”
“You may not remember every document you approved from the field.”
“Show me.”
Lorraine stood. “I will not be interrogated in my own home.”
“It belongs to the company.”
“It is my home.”
“And what did Natalie sign?”
Brooke looked down.
Lorraine’s face changed. The panic appeared only for a moment, but Ethan saw it.
“She signed an acknowledgment.”
“Of what?”
“That the family company was restructuring debt.”
“Why would my wife need to acknowledge company debt?”
Marisol answered without looking up. “Because Arizona is a community-property state, and a lender may request spousal consent depending on how the borrower’s interest or guaranty is structured.”
Lorraine’s eyes flashed toward her.
Marisol closed the legal pad. “That is not an accusation. It is one possible reason.”
Ethan stood.
“Show me the document.”
Lorraine walked to the French doors and stared at the patio.
“You arrive after disappearing for nearly two weeks,” she said, “and suddenly I am a criminal because a sick woman resented being asked to help prepare for one evening.”
Ethan’s hands curled against the table.
Marisol spoke before he did. “You should contact counsel.”
“This family does not need more outsiders.”
“Natalie is family,” Ethan said.
Lorraine turned.
The silence that followed was the first honest answer she had given.
Brooke picked up the SUV keys.
“I have an appointment.”
“Sit down,” Lorraine said.
“I’m not staying if he’s going to accuse me of forging things.”
“No one used the word forging,” Marisol said.
Brooke’s fingers tightened around the keys.
Ethan looked at her. “Did you watch Natalie sign?”
“I watched her sign insurance forms.”
“Which insurance company?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did the top of the page say?”
“She signed them, Ethan. No one forced her.”
“Did you hold her arm?”
Brooke stood so quickly the table shifted.
“She was shaking. I kept the pen from falling.”
The explanation landed between them.
Lorraine closed her eyes.
Brooke looked from one face to another. “That isn’t what I meant.”
Marisol wrote something down.
Lorraine’s voice dropped. “You should both leave.”
Ethan did not move. “The nine hundred thousand can still solve the debt.”
Marisol’s head lifted.
Lorraine studied him.
“How?”
“Transfer your interests in Mercer Ridge to me. I assume the debt, clear the arrears, and protect the remaining properties.”
Brooke stared. “Our interests permanently?”
“We discuss terms through lawyers.”
“You said everything had to be in your name before the payout.”
“It does if I’m using the payout to save the company.”
That part was close enough to truth to hold.
Lorraine returned to the table.
“And afterward?”
“Afterward, you have no debt.”
“What do we have?”
“That depends on the books.”
Brooke laughed. “So you get the house, the rentals, everything Dad built, and we get whatever you decide?”
“You get whatever remains after the money you spent is accounted for.”
Lorraine placed one hand on the back of her chair. “Your wife has poisoned you against us.”
“No. You made her scrub serving trays on her knees.”
“She insisted on being useful.”
“She asked me to take her away.”
“She performs helplessness when you are present.”
Marisol rose. “We’re done.”
Ethan remained where he was.
Lorraine’s voice softened. “You came home and saw one ugly moment. You did not see the weeks of meals, appointments, laundry, and nights I sat outside her door because she was vomiting. You did not see Brooke cancel plans to stay with her. You did not see your wife throw food, insult staff, or accuse us of stealing things she misplaced.”
Brooke looked surprised by some of this.
Lorraine continued. “Illness changes people. It has changed her. You may hate me for saying it, but someone has to be honest.”
For one dangerous second, Ethan wanted part of it to be true.
Not the bruises. Not the patio. But some version in which Lorraine had cared badly rather than acted cruelly, in which Natalie’s condition had distorted enough details to make the world less deliberate. He wanted an explanation that allowed him to remain the son he had been.
Then he saw Natalie’s phone on a console table near the hall.
Its lavender case was partly hidden beneath a stack of mail.
He walked toward it.
Lorraine stepped between him and the console.
“That is Natalie’s property,” he said.
“She asked me to keep it safe.”
“She asked for it last night.”
“You spoke to her?”
“At the hospital.”
Lorraine’s face tightened.
Brooke moved toward the front door.
“Leave the keys,” Ethan said.
She turned. “Excuse me?”
“The SUV belongs to Mercer Ridge.”
“Dad bought it for me.”
“The company bought it. I want the keys left until the books are reviewed.”
Brooke stared at him, then at Lorraine.
Lorraine said, “Go.”
Brooke left with the keys.
Marisol touched Ethan’s arm. “Do not block her. Do not touch the phone without Natalie’s permission.”
“It’s her phone.”
“In a house managed by a party who may claim it contains company information. Get written authorization.”
He hated every delay implied by the sentence.
Lorraine picked up the phone and slipped it into her trouser pocket.
“Now leave.”
Outside, Ethan stood beneath the harsh white sky and watched Brooke’s SUV disappear beyond the gate.
May you like
“I should have taken it,” he said.
Marisol walked toward her car. “And then they would say you entered under false pretenses and stole a device. We do this correctly.”
