Chapter 5 - My Mother-in-Law Chose a Side
Margaret visited me two weeks before the gala.
She arrived without calling.
She walked into my living room carrying a leather folder.
“I need you to sign something.”
“What is it?”
“A temporary voting authorization.”
“For Daniel?”
“For the stability of the company.”
I opened the folder.
The document would have given Daniel control of my shares if two physicians declared me medically impaired.
One physician was Daniel’s college roommate.
The other had received a private consulting payment from Northstar.
I looked up.
“Do you think I’m incompetent?”
Margaret sighed.
“This doesn’t need to become ugly.”
“Your son is having an affair.”
She did not look surprised.
That hurt more than I expected.
“You know.”
“I know he has been unhappy.”
“With Sloane?”
Margaret sat across from me.
“The child changes things.”
For several seconds, I could not speak.
“You know about the baby too.”
“Daniel deserves a family.”
“We tried to have children for eight years.”
“I remember.”
“I had three miscarriages.”
“I remember that too.”
Her voice remained perfectly calm.
“But Sloane can give him what you could not.”
The cruelty of that sentence settled between us.
Margaret slid the folder closer.
“Sign this, Evelyn.”
“What happens after I sign?”
“You’ll receive a generous settlement.”
“From my own company?”
“You’ll be comfortable.”
“And Sloane?”
“She will marry Daniel after the divorce.”
I closed the folder.
“Do you love your son?”
“Of course.”
“Then you should have stopped him.”
Margaret stood.
“You are making this harder than necessary.”
“No.”
I handed the folder back to her.
“I’m making it unforgettable.”
That night, I authorized Naomi to release the evidence against Margaret.
She had accepted $900,000 from Northstar.
She had used part of it to purchase a lake house in Vermont.
Margaret believed the property was protected because it was registered through a family trust.
She did not know I had quietly purchased the trust’s outstanding debt.
Technically, I now controlled the loan attached to her house.
Naomi looked uncomfortable.
“You don’t have to take the property.”
“She helped drug me.”
“I understand.”
“She used my miscarriages to justify it.”
Naomi held my gaze.
“This is the moment people may stop seeing you as the victim.”
“Good.”
May you like
I signed the foreclosure authorization.
“I’m tired of being useful only when I’m easy to pity.”
