Chapter 15 - Richard’s Final Gift
Margaret sat across from me in a small interview room.
No pearls.
No designer coat.
No carefully arranged hair.
For the first time, she looked ordinary.
Older.
Smaller.
Still dangerous.
“You look pleased.”
“I’m not.”
“You won.”
I shook my head.
“This was never a game.”
“It was to Richard.”
“Richard is dead.”
Her eyes shifted.
For a second, genuine grief appeared.
Then it vanished.
“He was going to leave me.”
I had not expected that.
“What?”
“He discovered the money.”
Margaret stared at her hands.
“He told me he was removing me from the company.”
“That isn’t the same as leaving you.”
“He had already spoken to an attorney.”
“Maybe because you stole millions.”
Her jaw tightened.
“He wanted you on the board.”
I stared at her.
“Me?”
“He trusted you.”
I almost laughed.
Richard and I had always been close.
But we had never discussed company leadership.
Margaret continued.
“He said Daniel was too eager to please people.”
That sounded like Richard.
“He said Mark avoided conflict.”
Also true.
“And he said you were the only person in the family who could hear an unpleasant truth without changing it into something easier.”
I swallowed.
Margaret slid a document across the table.
Nathan had already verified it.
Richard created a voting trust.
If Margaret became unable to serve as chairperson because of criminal conduct or financial misconduct, her voting authority transferred temporarily.
To me.
I stared at the signature.
“Why didn’t anyone know?”
“Because Richard gave the original to Nathan’s former partner.”
That attorney died two years later.
The file disappeared into archived storage.
Margaret discovered a copy after Richard died.
She hid it.
“Why are you giving it to me now?”
Margaret looked tired.
“Because the lenders are coming.”
“For what?”
“Everything.”
She told me Carter Development had forty-eight hours before a major creditor attempted to seize assets.
If that happened, hundreds of employees could lose their jobs.
Mark and Daniel did not have enough voting control to stop an emergency liquidation.
But with Richard’s document, I did.
I looked at Margaret.
“You spent years trying to remove me.”
“Yes.”
“And now you need me.”
“Yes.”
“Why should I save your company?”
Her answer surprised me.
“You shouldn’t.”
I waited.
“You should save Richard’s.”
For the first time since I met Margaret Carter, she said something without defending herself.
When I left the room, Daniel was waiting.
“What did she say?”
I handed him the document.
He read it.
Then looked at me.
“You control her shares?”
“Temporarily.”
A faint, almost disbelieving smile appeared.
“My mother is going to hate that.”
“She already does.”
Daniel laughed.
Then his expression became serious.
“Will you help?”
I thought about Richard.
I thought about the employees.
I thought about Lily.
Then I looked at Daniel.
“I’ll help the company.”
Hope entered his eyes.
I immediately stopped it.
“That does not mean I’m coming back to you.”
The hope disappeared.
He nodded.
“I understand.”
May you like
For once, he did not argue.
And that was the first small reason I believed he might finally be changing.
