Chapter 12 - WHAT EACH OF THEM CALLED LOVE
The dining room had been cleaned, but one mark remained on the hardwood where the second plate had fallen.
Claire noticed it before she noticed Jackson.
He stood near the fireplace with his attorney. Genesis sat at the head of the table. Luke remained by the doorway, arms folded.
No food was served.
No relatives were invited.
Genesis looked toward Claire’s scar and then away.
Jackson spoke first.
“I’m willing to get counseling.”
Claire placed a folder on the table.
“This isn’t a negotiation about your temper.”
“It was one incident.”
“It was the first incident that left stitches.”
His attorney touched his sleeve, warning him.
Jackson pulled away.
“You all want to make me into some criminal because I tried to save what Dad built.”
Luke said, “You used customer deposits.”
“I moved cash between projects. Contractors do it every day.”
“Not into a company you privately owned.”
Jackson turned to Genesis.
“Tell them why you approved it.”
Genesis’s shoulders stiffened.
“You said the county vote was certain.”
“It should have been.”
“You said Claire had agreed to the condo.”
“She would have if you hadn’t turned dinner into a spectacle.”
Claire stared at him.
“You designed the dinner.”
“I designed a conversation where you couldn’t avoid reality.”
“You mean where I couldn’t say no.”
Jackson pressed both palms against the table.
“Do you know what it’s like to inherit a company everyone expects you to expand? Dad doubled revenue every five years. Mom compared every decision I made to his. Employees looked at me like I was borrowing his chair.”
Genesis flinched.
Jackson continued.
“Arroyo Vista was supposed to prove I could build something of my own.”
“So you risked everyone else’s money,” Claire said.
“I was going to repay it.”
“With my home.”
“With an asset sitting empty while people’s livelihoods were at stake.”
Claire felt the old instinct to explain, to make him understand why the condo mattered. It was the first thing she had ever owned. It represented years when no one had rescued her.
Then she understood that he knew.
That was why he had chosen it.
Genesis spoke quietly.
“I wanted to die in this house.”
Jackson turned toward her.
“Mom—”
“I agreed to the bridge loan because you told me I would never have to leave unless Claire backed out. You made me hate her before she ever said no.”
“You approved the transfers.”
“I trusted you.”
“You wanted the company protected as much as I did.”
Genesis’s chin lifted.
“Yes.”
The admission was small and devastating.
She looked at Claire.
“I believed your property was available. But when you denied it, I should have stopped. I didn’t. I was more afraid of losing the house than of what my son was doing to you.”
Claire did not offer forgiveness.
Jackson paced toward the window.
“The restructuring destroys everything.”
“It preserves the employees you keep using as shields,” Luke said.
Jackson looked at Genesis.
“If you sign it, Dad’s company becomes a bank-controlled shell.”
Genesis rubbed the indentation where her wedding ring had rested for forty years.
Then she asked him, “If Claire had signed over the condo, when were you planning to tell me the bridge loan had already consumed most of my equity?”
Jackson said nothing.
May you like
Genesis’s hand stopped moving.
The silence answered her.
