Chapter 26 - THE LAST MERCER DINNER
Vivian died at eighty-four.
Natural causes.
Grant had died two years earlier after heart disease.
Sophie was in her twenties.
She attended both funerals.
I attended neither.
No statement.
No protest.
Boundary.
After Vivian’s funeral, Ethan invited everyone to dinner at a restaurant.
Not family estate.
No private house.
No locked social hierarchy.
Sophie sat beside cousins I barely knew.
Someone raised a glass.
“To family.”
I braced instinctively.
Then Ethan added:
“The kind people choose to keep.”
Better.
After dinner, Sophie found me outside.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You always say that.”
“Actually yes.”
She held a small box.
“What?”
“Grandma left me something.”
Inside:
Vivian’s pearl earrings.
Sophie stared.
“Do I have to hate them?”
“No.”
“Do I have to wear them?”
“No.”
“Can I sell them?”
“Yes.”
She laughed.
She kept them.
Wore them once to a medical-school gala.
No inherited curse.
Just jewelry.
Grant left Ethan his old leather belt.
Ethan threw it away.
Different people.
Different objects.
No correct symbolism.
The Mercer Development board later renamed one warehouse after Charles Mercer.
Not Grant.
That caused family arguments.
I stayed out.
May you like
My life had finally become mostly unrelated to their governance.
Exactly what I wanted.
