Chapter 5 - What My Mother Left Behind
I recognized Mom’s handwriting immediately.
She wrote about her illness.
About the factory.
About financial transfers that worried her.
And about Marlene, who had already become involved in my father’s life as a business adviser before my mother passed away.
Then I found a sentence written specifically for me.
“If anyone ever makes you believe you’re a stranger in this company, remember that your great-grandmother helped build it with her own hands. Your place cannot disappear simply because someone chooses to deny it.”
I couldn’t speak.
Silas opened the second folder.
My mother had owned 42 percent of Langford Textiles.
After her death, those shares were supposed to remain in trust until I turned twenty-five.
I was thirty-two.
I had never received them.
A document supposedly showed that I had surrendered my rights shortly after my mother’s death.
There was one obvious problem.
I had been fourteen years old.
Silas’s investigators discovered irregularities in the notarization.
Over the following years, money connected to my mother’s ownership had been redirected into businesses controlled by Marlene.
The money helped pay for renovations.
Vehicles.
Vacations.
Jewelry.
Even Brielle’s private college tuition.
My hands trembled.
“Did my father know?”
“He says Marlene told him he was signing temporary management documents.”
I stared at Silas.
“A man who runs a manufacturing company doesn’t sign documents for fourteen years without asking questions.”
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Silas didn’t defend him.
Neither did I.
