Chapter 19 - THE THIRTY-ONE PERCENT
Ewan’s ownership case should have taken years.
It took eleven months.
The marriage certificate proved Delia was his legal spouse.
Medical records proved his identity.
DNA confirmed what no one in the family doubted.
The death certificate was voided.
The thirty-one percent was his again.
We sat in the boardroom the morning the transfer became official.
Ewan signed slowly with his right hand.
His left still refused to cooperate.
When he finished, he slid the papers toward me.
I looked at them.
“What?”
He typed into his speech device.
“Half.”
“No.”
He frowned.
“Half.”
“They’re yours.”
“Family.”
“That argument is exactly how we got into this mess.”
Delia laughed.
Ewan glared at me.
I pushed the papers back.
“Keep them.”
He typed again.
“Bossy.”
“You’ve been dead six years.”
I leaned back.
“I get a few months of authority.”
His device answered.
“Idiot.”
That sounded more like my brother.
Delia smiled across the table.
For the first time, the three of us laughed together.
The company changed.
Slowly.
Painfully.
We closed businesses that could not survive daylight.
We sold properties tied to old operations.
We kept the shipping company.
The legitimate part.
The part Ewan had once wanted to save.
Vincent retired.
Actually retired.
He bought a small house near Lake Geneva.
My mother refused to move with him despite his repeated suggestions that the air was cleaner there.
She called him ridiculous by blinking at a letter board.
Her speech improved too.
Not much.
But enough.
One morning I entered her room and she looked at me.
“Mat.”
I stopped.
She had not said my name in four years.
I sat beside her.
“Say it again.”
Her mouth struggled.
“Mat…teo.”
I lowered my head.
She touched my hair.
Then she whispered another name.
“Ewan.”
He entered from the hallway.
Delia had helped him walk there with a cane.
My mother saw both sons standing in front of her.
One she had hidden.
One she had lied to.
Both alive.
Her shoulders shook.
“I’m…sorry.”
Ewan sat beside her.
He took her hand.
I took the other.
“You saved him.”
She shook her head.
“Lied.”
“Yes.”
I didn’t make it easier for her.
“You did.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“But you were afraid.”
She nodded.
I thought about all the damage people do while calling fear love.
Then I squeezed her hand.
“We’re done being afraid.”
She looked at Ewan.
He smiled.
For a while, none of us spoke.
We didn’t need to.
That evening Delia found me alone in my study.
“You know Ewan wants to ask me to marry him again.”
“You’re already married.”
“I told him that.”
“What did he say?”
She smiled.
“He wants to do it properly.”
“That sounds expensive.”
“He blamed you for teaching him that.”
I laughed.
She started toward the door.
“Delia.”
She stopped.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Two years.”
She understood immediately.
“You were busy.”
“That’s an excuse.”
“Yes.”
Her honesty made me smile.
“I never asked your name.”
“No.”
“You took care of my mother every night.”
“Yes.”
“And I walked past you.”
Delia considered me.
“Then don’t walk past people anymore.”
She left.
I sat alone after that.
May you like
Of all the lessons my family had taught me, that one might have mattered most.
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