Chapter 24 - MARGARET’S LAST LETTER
Margaret died at seventy-eight after completing her sentence years earlier.
She had lived quietly with a niece.
Her final letter to William arrived through counsel.
He was twenty-three.
She wrote:
I believed Howerin was the inheritance and that every descendant’s duty was to preserve it.
I understand now that I treated people as extensions of ownership.
Your father fought me before he died.
Your mother fought me after.
You owe neither of them continuation of the company.
William read it once.
“Do you believe her?”
“I believe she wrote it.”
“Same?”
“No.”
He folded the letter.
Kept it.
No reconciliation could happen.
May you like
Death had closed that possibility.
Understanding remained optional.
