Chapter 12 - What Each of Us Was Actually Protecting
Donna agreed to attend one mediation session.
She arrived furious that Brian had allowed business emails to become part of the restructuring review.
“They were company communications.”
Brian looked at her.
“They were about Megan’s house.”
Donna turned toward me.
“You had an asset doing nothing.”
“It had a tenant.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
I did.
To Donna, assets existed to defend the family system she valued.
The problem was that she did not count my ownership as part of that system.
The mediator asked Donna what she had been protecting.
“My retirement.”
At least she was honest.
“I invested in Brian because I believed in him. I’m not obligated to become poor because he made mistakes.”
Brian flinched.
There it was.
The sentence he had been avoiding for years.
He turned toward her.
“You would have let Megan become exposed instead.”
Donna shrugged slightly.
“She’s your wife.”
I laughed without humor.
“And you’re his mother.”
Donna looked irritated.
“That isn't the same.”
“No.”
I leaned forward.
“You’re right. You had a written investment agreement. I had wedding vows.”
She stopped.
Then the mediator asked Brian what he had protected.
“My company.”
A pause.
“My mother’s approval.”
Another pause.
“My image of myself.”
Finally, the mediator asked me.
“Lily.”
Then I corrected myself.
“And the one asset my father gave me that existed before Brian and might still exist after him.”
Brian looked at me.
That hurt him.
I did not soften it.
My father did not leave me the Arlington house so I could win an argument.
He left it because security mattered.
Now I understood why.
Donna had one opportunity to reduce the pressure.
She still held approximately $63,000 in redemption claims against the company.
The restructuring consultant asked her to defer collection for eighteen months.
Donna refused.
Brian looked at her for a long time.
Then said:
“I’m not replacing it with Megan’s money.”
Donna’s head snapped toward him.
“Then you may lose the company.”
May you like
“I know.”
For the first time, he said those words without reaching for something that belonged to me.
