Chapter 9
Cullen did not confront his mother immediately.
He asked her to come to the mansion with her own attorney if she wanted one.
Margaret arrived alone.
“You think I need a lawyer to talk to my son?”
“I think everyone in this family should stop assuming private conversations are safe.”
Margaret almost smiled.
“Finally.”
Cullen showed her Chase’s message.
Her expression changed.
“What does he mean?”
“You tell me.”
Margaret walked toward the window.
For the first time since the conservatory, she looked uncertain.
“There is something I didn’t tell you.”
Cullen waited.
“About Chase’s financing.”
Margaret had not merely opposed it because the numbers were weak.
She had discovered that one of the proposed development partners had previously defaulted on a loan connected to a different Ravello-controlled company.
Chase had failed to disclose it.
Margaret quietly asked the foundation’s outside accountants to review the relationship.
She had not told Cullen because she feared he would confront Chase before the review was complete.
Cullen nearly laughed at the irony.
“You didn’t trust me to investigate calmly.”
Margaret looked directly at him.
“Would you have?”
He had no answer.
The accountants had not completed their work.
But Chase learned Margaret had asked questions.
Two weeks later Tove began telling board members Margaret’s judgment was declining.
The timing fit too well.
Then Margaret admitted something else.
She had already considered resigning from the foundation.
Cullen stared at her.
“Why?”
“I’m seventy-two.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“I was tired.”
She looked toward Mireya’s toys near the conservatory doors.
“And I thought if I stepped away from the board, maybe Tove would stop treating me like an obstacle.”
Cullen felt anger rise.
“At the financing meeting?”
“After it.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Margaret picked up her handbag.
“Because Mireya started having more attacks.”
She had begun wondering whether leaving would mean losing daily access to the child.
So she stayed.
The board seat Tove and Chase wanted gone was being preserved for the same reason they were attacking her credibility.
Mireya.
Then Cullen noticed something in the documents Margaret brought.
A draft resignation letter.
Dated six weeks earlier.
On the bottom was a handwritten note.
Don’t send yet. Ask Cullen about emergency-care authorization.
Cullen stared at the words.
“What emergency-care authorization?”
Margaret looked confused.
May you like
For once, genuinely.
“You signed it.”
