Chapter 9
Celeste withdrew her challenge the next week.
The house and company transfers remained in place. Mara gave me the final confirmation and explained what would happen next with the missing money. The company would seek repayment through the legal process. Celeste and Daniel would each answer for their part.
There was no single day when everything became simple.
Dad still needed time to regain his strength. Brianna still cried after some calls with her mother. I still felt a jolt when I heard a plate knock against the edge of the sink.
But I no longer wondered whether I was imagining what had happened.
At work, I began holding weekly meetings with Colin and the finance director. We checked major payments together. I asked staff to raise questions early, even if they thought an invoice was probably fine.
The first time someone found a duplicate charge, she came to my office looking nervous.
“I don’t want to cause trouble,” she said.
“You found something we need to check. That helps us.”
It turned out to be an ordinary mistake. We fixed it that afternoon. I told her I appreciated her speaking up.
That evening, Brianna asked me to meet her for dinner.
She had rented a small place near her new job. She was no longer working at Dad’s company. She wanted the chance to find work without family arguments following her down the hall.
“I talked to Mom today,” she said after we ordered.
“How was she?”
“Sad. Angry. She knows she has to repay the company, but she keeps coming back to how she lost Richard.”
I listened.
“I told her I can visit her,” Brianna said. “I won’t help her blame you.”
“That must have been hard.”
“It was. I think I can still love her and tell her when she’s wrong.”
“You can.”
Brianna took a sip of water.
“I wanted to ask if I can come by the house sometimes. To see Richard. And you.”
“You don’t need an appointment.”
“I thought after everything—”
“We can make our own plans, Brianna.”
She smiled.
On Sunday, she came over to help Dad plant herbs near the back steps. He supervised from a chair while she and I worked. He claimed we were digging the holes too deep. We claimed he was enjoying being in charge.
For a few hours, the house felt easy.
Later, Mara called with a settlement proposal. Funds from the canceled lake house purchase would be returned toward the company’s losses. Celeste and Daniel would repay additional amounts under separate agreements while the authorities completed their case.
I sat with Dad as Mara explained the terms. He asked careful questions. When she finished, he turned to me.
“What do you think?”
I looked over the figures. We would still have work to do, but the recovery protected staff and gave the company a clear path forward.
“I think Mara has given us a good basis to resolve the financial loss,” I said. “I want the repayment dates written clearly.”
Mara nodded. “They will be.”
Dad didn’t correct me or take over. He listened as the owner I had become.
A few days later, I took Mom’s chipped photograph to a frame shop. The owner matched the wood as closely as he could. When I brought it home, Dad helped me hang it in the hallway beside a picture of him and me at my college graduation.
“You used to hate that picture,” he said.
“My cap was crooked.”
“You were smiling.”
“I was happy.”
He stepped back to see the two photographs together.
“I should have noticed sooner that she’d taken the old ones down,” he said.
“I should have told you how much it hurt.”
“We’re getting better at that.”
He was right.
On the day the financial agreement was signed, I went to the office early. Mara called to confirm the first funds had arrived. The remaining payments would be monitored. The company could move ahead.
Dad came in at lunchtime, looking healthier than he had in months.
“Take a walk with me,” he said.
We went to a park near the office. He asked what I wanted to change at the company now that the emergency had eased.
I told him I wanted a training program for younger staff and a clearer path for people whose families had no connections to the business.
“That sounds like you,” he said.
“I hope so.”
When we returned, Brianna was waiting outside my office with three coffees. She had remembered how we each took them.
I watched her hand Dad his cup, then turn toward me with mine.
I thought about the dinner when she had laughed while Celeste pushed me toward the door. I would always remember it. I could also see the work Brianna had done since.
I took the coffee.
“Thank you,” I said.
May you like
She smiled. “Come to dinner at my place on Saturday?”
“I’d like that.”
