My second brother came directly from his shop.
Neither looked worried.
In fact, my eldest brother seemed almost cheerful.
“So,” he said as he sat down, “did we finally finish that disaster?”
Dad looked at him.
“Your brother helped me manage it.”
My eldest brother shrugged.
“I told him from the beginning not to take everything on himself.”
My wife was in the kitchen.
I saw her stop moving when she heard that.
I said nothing.
Dad had asked me before they arrived to let him speak.
My second brother leaned forward.
“What is this meeting about?”
Dad opened the folder.
The room changed immediately.
Both of them recognized it.
My eldest brother frowned.
“There’s more debt?”
“No.”
Dad removed copies of the documents and placed them on the table.
“There is property.”
My brothers looked at each other.
The second one picked up a page first.
His eyes moved rapidly over it.
“What property?”
Dad explained the same thing he had explained to me: the asset had existed for years, but unresolved paperwork had prevented a clean transfer or sale.
Over the past year, those issues had finally been completed.
My eldest brother reached for the deed.
He read farther than the second one had.
Then his face hardened.
“Why is his name here?”
No one answered immediately.
He looked at me.
“Why is your name here?”
“Ask Dad.”
He turned toward him.
“Dad?”
Dad sat upright.
“Because I transferred it to him.”
My second brother laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Dad did not react.
My eldest brother slapped the document onto the table.
“We’re your sons too.”
“Yes.”
“Then how can you give everything to him?”
Dad’s voice stayed calm.
“Because it is mine to give.”
The eldest stood.
“So this whole year was a test?”
“No.”
That answer seemed to surprise everyone.
Dad looked directly at him.
