Chapter 8 - The Missing Trustee.
Margaret Hale entered the library carrying no gift and wearing no expression that could be mistaken for celebration.
She was sixty-four, tall, silver-haired, and dressed in a simple navy suit that looked almost severe beside the wedding clothes around her.
Natalie stared at her as if a person from an old family photograph had stepped into the room.
Evelyn had met Margaret only once since childhood.
That meeting had happened three days earlier in a quiet coffee shop across from Walter Kline's office.
Margaret had cried before Evelyn did.
She explained that Grant cut off contact after Susan's death.
He returned Margaret's letters.
He changed the girls' phone numbers.
He told relatives Margaret had chosen a new life overseas.
Margaret had actually moved only forty minutes away.
"I believed he would calm down."
She had told Evelyn.
"Then years passed, and every attempt I made seemed to make him pull you farther away."
Evelyn had not known whether to forgive her aunt for giving up.
She still did not know.
But Margaret had brought something more important than an apology.
She had her original trustee file.
Now she placed that file on the library table.
Grant looked at it and sat down for the first time.
"You shouldn't be here."
He said.
Margaret removed her glasses.
"Susan would disagree."
Natalie's hand flew to her mouth.
"Why didn't you come to the ceremony?"
"I did."
Margaret said.
"I sat near the back."
"I didn't see you."
"I wasn't sure I had the right to be seen."
Grant laughed bitterly.
"You don't."
Evelyn stepped between them before old history swallowed the new evidence.
"Did you approve any withdrawal from my education trust?"
Margaret looked at her.
"No."
The answer was immediate.
"Did you resign as trustee?"
"No."
"Did you authorize Dad to sign for you?"
"Never."
Douglas Reed closed his eyes briefly.
Celeste began pacing near the fireplace.
Grant leaned back in his chair.
"She abandoned the role."
Margaret opened her file.
"I sent annual letters asking for statements."
She laid copies on the table.
"You returned the first three unopened."
More pages followed.
"Then I sent them through Walter."
She placed certified delivery receipts beside them.
Grant said nothing.
Natalie stared at the dates.
Some were from when she was in high school.
"You knew where we were the whole time?"
She asked.
Margaret's voice broke slightly.
"Yes."
"Then why didn't you come get us?"
"Because you had a father, and I had no legal reason to remove you from him."
Margaret swallowed.
"And because I made the cowardly mistake of believing distance was better than a war around two grieving children."
Natalie looked away.
Evelyn understood the anger in her sister's face because she felt it too.
But Grant seized on it instantly.
"There."
He said.
"Even she admits she walked away."
Margaret turned to him.
"I walked away from fighting you."
She said.
"I did not walk away from my duties as trustee."
She pulled out one final document.
It was an annual Northbridge statement from eight months earlier.
The education trust balance was intact.
A handwritten note at the bottom recorded Margaret's instruction that no principal be moved without direct confirmation from Evelyn after age twenty-one.
Evelyn looked at Grant.
"You knew this."
Grant did not respond.
Margaret reached deeper into the file.
"There is more."
Celeste stopped pacing.
For the first time, she looked frightened.
Margaret placed a photocopy of a letter on the table.
It was written on Mercer Diagnostics stationery.
The signature at the bottom belonged to Grant.
The letter told Northbridge that Margaret had become medically unable to serve and that Grant had temporary authority to act alone.
Margaret's eyes were cold.
"I have never been medically unable to manage my affairs."
Douglas read the letter.
"Who submitted this?"
Grant stared at the floor.
Celeste whispered.
"Grant, say something."
Margaret turned the page over.
Attached behind it was a fax confirmation sheet.
The sender name was visible.
Elaine Porter.
The former assistant.
Evelyn felt the room contract around that name.
Then Margaret spoke again.
"Walter found Elaine yesterday."
Grant's head came up.
"Where?"
"Close enough to answer questions."
May you like
Margaret said.
"And she already has."
