The word landed harder than I expected.
I looked at Eleanor.
“How long have you two been planning this?”
She straightened.
“Planning? You’re acting like we’re criminals.
We discussed a family problem.
That’s what families do.”
“Did either of you discuss it with me?”
Silence.
“Did Steven?”
More silence.
“Did anyone ask whether I wanted to give him $140 million?”
Eleanor’s patience finally broke.
“You don’t need $140 million!”
Her voice filled the room.
There it was.
The belief underneath everything.
Because they had decided I didn’t need it, they believed that meant they were entitled to decide who did.
The attorney was still on the phone.
Mark noticed and picked up my phone.
“Can we have a minute?”
I took it from him.
“No.”
I asked the attorney to remain on the line.
Then I turned back to Mark.
“You told your brother he could count on money you had no authority to give him.
What exactly did you expect to happen this morning?”
Mark rubbed his face.
“I thought we’d talk.”
I looked toward the bedroom door Eleanor had pushed open without knocking.
Then at the chair she had ordered me to sit in.
Then at the folder she had demanded before I had even taken off my coat.
“This was your version of talking?”
His face reddened.
“Mom shouldn’t have come in like that.”
Eleanor turned on him.
“Don’t you dare put this on me.
You said Emily would make it difficult.”
Mark froze.
So did I.
He looked at his mother slowly.
“Mom.”
But she was angry now, and angry people often reveal what careful people hide.
“What? You did.
You said she’d get emotional because it was her mother’s money.
You said we needed to make her understand that Steven couldn’t wait while she processed her feelings.”
I didn’t move.
Mark closed his eyes.
That sentence hurt more than I wanted it to.
Not because Eleanor had said it.
Because Mark had apparently said it first.
My grief had not made him protective.
It had made him strategic.
He had anticipated my objection and decided it would be an emotional problem to overcome.
“Is that true?” I asked.
“Emily, she is twisting what I said.”
