Chapter 5 - WHAT ELAINE HAD ALREADY SACRIFICED
Elaine came back the next morning with bank statements.
For once, she did not ask to come inside.
They sat at Nora’s kitchen table because Nora invited her.
The difference mattered.
Elaine had given Marcus $146,000 over three years.
Some came from savings.
Some from selling municipal bonds Harold had purchased for retirement.
Forty thousand came from a home-equity line against Elaine’s Hershey condominium.
Nora stared at the total.
“You knew he was gambling.”
“I knew some of it was gambling.”
“What did he tell you the rest was?”
“Business expenses. Taxes. A bad investment.”
“Did you verify any of it?”
Elaine looked offended.
Then ashamed.
“No.”
“Why?”
“He said if Harold found out, he would remove him from the company.”
“Maybe Dad should have.”
Elaine’s expression hardened.
“You don’t understand your brother.”
Nora pushed the statements back.
“That sentence has protected him his entire life.”
Elaine looked toward the window.
“When Marcus was sixteen, your father threw him out for three days because he wrecked the truck.”
“He was drunk.”
“He was a child.”
“He could have killed someone.”
“You always had your father.”
Nora stared at her.
There it was.
The old accounting system of the Farwell family.
Love treated as a limited resource.
Harold trusted Nora.
Therefore Marcus needed Elaine more.
Marcus failed.
Therefore helping him mattered more.
Nora succeeded.
Therefore Nora needed less.
It had been presented as fairness for so long that Nora had almost believed it.
Elaine’s voice softened.
“Your brother has spent his entire life thinking your father respected you more.”
“Dad did respect me.”
Elaine flinched.
Nora regretted the cruelty but not the truth.
“He trusted me because when I made a mistake, I admitted it.”
Elaine looked down at the statements.
“I thought if Marcus could get through this one crisis, we could force him into treatment.”
“With my house?”
“With the value of the house.”
“Same thing.”
Elaine nodded faintly.
Then Nora saw a transfer she had missed.
$27,500 paid eighteen months earlier to Farwell Architectural Millwork.
“Why did you send the company money?”
Elaine froze.
Nora tapped the page.
“Mom.”
“It was temporary.”
“Why?”
Elaine’s voice dropped.
“There was a cash shortage.”
“From what?”
“I don’t know.”
“You gave the business nearly thirty thousand dollars without knowing why?”
“Marcus said payroll was short.”
Nora stared at her.
Marcus had told her yesterday that losing his company shares would hurt fifty-three employees.
Now she knew he had already been using the company’s vulnerability to extract family money.
Gerald called while Elaine was still sitting there.
“Nora, we found the guarantee Marcus mentioned.”
Her stomach tightened.
“Dad signed it?”
“No.”
“Then what did you find?”
“A corporate resolution authorizing a $200,000 line of credit.”
Nora glanced at Elaine.
Gerald continued.
“Harold’s signature appears on it.”
May you like
“Appears?”
“We have a problem with the date.”
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