Chapter 5 - CHARLES
Dad asked to meet alone.
Coffee shop.
Public.
No Helen.
No Lisa.
I brought my attorney.
He looked disappointed.
Good.
“I’m not discussing this privately anymore.”
Charles stared at Martin.
“You’ve known me thirty years.”
Martin said:
“That is exactly why I’m here.”
Dad rubbed his hands together.
“I put the recorder behind the vase in March.”
“Why?”
“Because numbers stopped making sense.”
“What numbers?”
“Grant’s company.”
Grant had opened two farm-to-table restaurants and a catering business.
Successful at first.
Then expansion.
A third location.
Debt.
Construction overruns.
One bad lease.
“I invested personally,” Charles said.
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
“Mom?”
“Eighty.”
“Lisa’s trust?”
“Over a million total over several years.”
I stared.
“Her branch had that much?”
“Yes.”
“What’s left?”
He looked away.
“Less.”
“How much less?”
“Approximately one hundred ninety thousand in liquid assets.”
I laughed.
“So they needed mine.”
“They needed time.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
“Dad.”
He sighed.
“I rejected Grant’s first request for cross-branch support.”
“Good.”
“Then Helen said you were willing to consider it.”
“I said no.”
“I know that now.”
“When did you know?”
“Three months ago.”
My body went still.
“You knew before yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“And you did nothing?”
“I started investigating.”
“You let Lisa sit at dinner with my son.”
His face tightened.
“I did not know she would hit Owen.”
“You knew she forged something.”
“I suspected.”
“You knew she and Grant were lying.”
“Yes.”
“And you invited us anyway.”
“It was family dinner.”
That phrase.
As if dinner outranked danger.
“Why record instead of confront?”
“Because every time I asked Grant about money, he had an explanation.”
“So you hid a recorder?”
“Yes.”
“Legal?”
Martin answered.
“Depends on location and state recording law. We’ll examine it.”
Good.
No shortcuts.
Dad continued:
“I wanted proof before I froze anything.”
“You had enough to call me.”
He looked down.
“I was ashamed.”
There it was.
“Of what?”
“That I let it happen.”
I stared.
May you like
“And your shame mattered more than my consent.”
He did not answer.
