Chapter 36 - Sophie’s Question
The adults wanted to keep the details away from Sophie and Noah.
That lasted four days.
At school, another child showed Sophie an article on a tablet.
MERCER TRUST FRAUD ALLEGATIONS DEEPEN AFTER SECRET ARCHIVE DISCOVERY.
By dinner, Sophie knew enough to be furious.
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
Claire set down her fork.
“We told you the important parts.”
“You told us there was a disagreement.”
“It is a disagreement.”
“No. Dad’s grandfather cheated his brother.”
Daniel corrected gently.
“My father appears to have cheated my uncle.”
“That’s worse.”
“Yes.”
Noah pushed peas around his plate.
“So are Emma and Lucas our cousins?”
“First cousins once removed,” Michael said.
Noah frowned.
“That sounds fake.”
Rachel laughed.
“It’s real.”
Sophie looked directly at Daniel.
“Are you going to fight them?”
“No.”
She seemed surprised.
“You’re not?”
“Not over whether they deserve recognition.”
“What about the money?”
Daniel took a breath.
“That depends on what the law says and what we can agree is fair.”
Sophie crossed her arms.
“I don’t want stolen money.”
The statement landed heavily.
Claire saw Daniel flinch.
“Soph.”
“No. If Grandpa Charles cheated Uncle Thomas, then part of our trust came from cheating.”
“No one is asking you to decide this.”
“It’s my trust.”
“That does not mean you have to carry the guilt for decisions made before you were born.”
Sophie looked at her mother.
“Then why do adults keep saying it’s for us?”
Claire had no immediate answer.
Noah finally spoke.
“If Emma and Lucas get some, will there still be enough for college?”
“Yes,” Daniel said.
“Then give them some.”
Everyone laughed softly.
Noah shrugged.
“I’m serious.”
Daniel smiled.
“I know.”
Later that night, Claire found Sophie sitting beneath the maple tree.
She sat beside her.
“You okay?”
Sophie picked at the grass.
“Dad used to be like Grandpa Charles?”
Claire did not answer too quickly.
“In some ways.”
“He lied for money.”
“Yes.”
“He used us.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you forgive him?”
Claire looked toward the kitchen window.
Daniel was inside helping Noah build something that looked structurally illegal out of wooden sticks.
“I didn’t forgive everything at once.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means forgiveness wasn’t one door I opened. It was a hundred small doors. He had to earn the right to walk through each one.”
Sophie considered that.
“Could Grandpa Charles have changed?”
“Maybe.”
“But he died before he did.”
“Yes.”
Sophie leaned against Claire.
“That’s sad.”
“It is.”
The next afternoon, Emma came to the house.
She brought photographs.
Thomas as a young man.
Thomas holding baby Emma.
Thomas teaching Lucas to ride a bicycle.
Sophie stared at them for almost an hour.
“He looks like Dad.”
Emma smiled.
“A little.”
Daniel entered from the hallway and stopped.
One photograph showed Thomas at thirty.
The resemblance was unmistakable.
Daniel sat.
Emma handed him the picture.
“My father kept one photograph of Charles.”
She pulled another from the envelope.
Two teenage brothers beside a lake.
Charles smiling.
Thomas making rabbit ears behind him.
Daniel swallowed.
“They looked happy.”
“They were once.”
That was the tragedy, Claire realized.
Families rarely began at the moment they broke.
There had been birthdays.
Inside jokes.
Shared bedrooms.
Arguments over cars.
Brothers who probably once defended each other from schoolyard bullies.
Then money and pride turned memory into evidence.
Sophie sat between Daniel and Emma.
“What happens now?”
Emma looked at Daniel.
Daniel looked at Claire.
Then he answered.
“We stop repeating them.”
Sophie nodded.
“Good.”
A phone rang.
Miriam.
Claire answered.
Her attorney skipped hello.
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“The court has appointed a special master to review the trust.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
“It would be.”
Claire heard pages moving.
“If the person appointed weren’t Gregory Pike.”
Daniel stood.
“Pike?”
Claire remembered immediately.
Warren Pike.
Daniel’s first divorce lawyer.
The man who had sat beside him while Lauren’s courtroom confession destroyed the original custody scheme.
Miriam’s voice sharpened.
“Gregory is Warren Pike’s older brother.”
May you like
Daniel’s expression changed.
The past had just found another door.
