Chapter 3 - Richard Expected Margaret To Interfere
Ethan read the sentence twice.
Emily sat beside him, wrapped in his jacket.
Margaret remained across the room.
Richard’s letter continued.
He apologized for leaving Ethan with a delayed truth.
He said there were facts about Hale Development that Ethan should learn
only after turning thirty-five because a trust provision activated on
that birthday.
Ethan stopped.
“What trust?”
Margaret answered immediately.
“Your father became paranoid near the end.”
Ethan ignored her and kept reading.
Richard wrote:
Do not rely on the company copy of my estate documents. Contact Samuel
Price. Ask for File 117.
Samuel Price had been Richard’s attorney.
Ethan knew him.
Margaret suddenly moved toward the fireplace.
Ethan stood.
“Don’t.”
She froze.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
“You already disabled cameras, attacked my wife, and tried to take this
letter.”
Margaret looked wounded by the word attacked.
Emily did not.
Ethan called security and asked them to remain nearby until Margaret
left.
Then he asked Emily what she wanted.
Not what he wanted.
Emily looked at Margaret.
“I want her out of the house.”
Ethan nodded.
Margaret stared at him.
“You’re throwing your mother out on your birthday?”
“No. Emily is asking the person who shoved her into a cake to leave her
home.”
Margaret grabbed her purse.
At the door, she turned.
“Your father’s letter will destroy everything he built.”
Ethan replied:
“Then maybe he should’ve told me sooner.”
Margaret left.
The next morning, Ethan and Emily met Samuel Price.
Samuel was eighty-one and retired.
When Ethan said “File 117,” the old attorney closed his eyes.
“I wondered if Richard’s letter survived.”
He unlocked a cabinet.
File 117 contained a trust amendment.
At thirty-five, Ethan would receive independent voting control over
twenty percent of Hale Development.
Ethan already owned shares.
But Margaret had exercised proxy authority over this separate block
since Richard’s death.
That authority ended today.
Ethan looked at Samuel.
“Why didn’t I know?”
“Richard instructed me not to contact you unless you produced the
letter.”
“That makes no sense.”
Samuel nodded sadly.
“I told him that.”
Then he placed another document on the table.
It was a handwritten list of six properties.
May you like
At the bottom Richard had written:
ASK MARGARET WHO REALLY PAID FOR THESE.
