Chapter 6 - GREENWAY DISTRIBUTION
Greenway Distribution was real.
Warehouses.
Trucks.
Contracts with specialty food manufacturers.
Silas built it before marrying Chelsea.
Bennett Grove acquired it three years earlier.
Purchase price:
$42 million.
Silas received:
Cash.
Bennett Grove shares.
A consulting agreement.
He disclosed ownership.
So related-party did not mean hidden automatically.
The issue was valuation.
Two independent appraisals had existed.
One:
$27–31 million.
Another:
$29 million.
Why pay forty-two?
Strategic synergies, Margaret’s board minutes said.
Route expansion.
Cold storage.
Vendor access.
Maybe legitimate premium.
Then Julia found an internal email from CFO Daniel Price:
At $42M we are overpaying materially absent five-year volume assumptions.
Margaret replied:
Family control has value not captured by external models.
Family control.
Again.
The acquisition was financed with debt.
That debt now required the bridge refinancing.
So the crisis did not start this week.
It started with an expensive family deal.
Silas defended himself.
“I told them my price.”
“That’s legal,” Rachel said.
“I didn’t force them.”
“Did you know the appraisals?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell Lucy?”
“I didn’t know Lucy had rights.”
Interesting.
“Who told you she didn’t?”
“Margaret.”
Exact language?
“She said Lucy walked away and her branch reverted to family reserve unless she came back.”
No document we had showed that.
Silas continued:
“I thought Chelsea and Margaret controlled the Legacy assets.”
“Did Chelsea know differently?”
His silence mattered.
“I don’t know what she knew.”
Good.
No accusation without proof.
Silas produced board materials.
Some showed genuine strategic rationale.
Greenway integrated successfully.
Revenue increased.
Not enough to service purchase debt comfortably after fuel costs and interest rates rose.
A bad price did not make the business fake.
The company now had real cash-flow strain.
Employees could eventually be at risk if refinancing failed.
That mattered.
I did not want to destroy Bennett Grove to prove Margaret wrong.
Rachel said:
“Then separate governance from survival.”
“How?”
“Independent restructuring.”
Margaret would hate that.
Therefore probably necessary.
The lender offered alternatives:
Fresh equity.
Asset sale.
Debt extension with higher interest.
Independent board oversight.
Or Lucy consent to the collateral package.
They were not demanding I sign blindly.
Margaret was.
Why?
Because the collateral package pledged Bennett Legacy assets she currently controlled.
Independent oversight could reveal years of branch accounting.
That looked like motive.
Still not full truth.
Chapter 10 waited.
At home, Dany asked for fries.
I laughed despite myself.
We made oven fries.
He ate seven and abandoned the rest.
The amount of family chaos generated by potatoes offended me.
Then Aunt Colleen called.
“Margaret is telling everyone Thomas intended you to have nothing unless you worked at Bennett Grove.”
“There’s no clause.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because he told me.”
“Can you testify?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly did he say?”
“That he was afraid Margaret would punish you financially for leaving.”
I looked toward Dad’s box.
“Why didn’t you tell me years ago?”
“Because Thomas told me not to interfere unless the condition occurred.”
“That was a terrible instruction.”
“I agree.”
“Why did you obey?”
“Because he was my brother and dying.”
Not good enough.
Human.
Colleen said:
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Your father recorded a meeting with Margaret and Chelsea.”
“Where?”
“The flash drive.”
We had not opened the encrypted files.
Password?
Dad left a hint.
Not the answer.
UNDER THE REINDEER.
I stared at the note.
“What reindeer?”
Colleen went quiet.
“Lucy.”
“What?”
“Northstar—no. Bennett Grove used to sell wooden Christmas toys?”
“No. Different side of family.”
My father collected carved Christmas animals.
One had sat in his office for decades.
A wooden reindeer.
After his death, Margaret boxed his office.
Where was it now?
May you like
Chelsea’s house.
The password clue had just become another reason we needed access to something the family might not willingly surrender.
