Chapter 14 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO RAISE THEM
The final Parker Legacy archive contained another name:
Rebecca Hale.
David’s older sister.
Erin had been told Aunt Rebecca died years ago.
She had not.
She lived in Oregon and had simply disappeared from Susan’s version of the family.
David’s estate plan named Rebecca as backup guardian for Erin and Madison if Susan became unavailable.
Susan cut contact after David died.
To her, the guardianship clause meant David had not trusted her.
To Rebecca, Susan’s silence looked like grief.
Years passed.
When Erin called, Rebecca cried at the sound of her voice.
Then she told Erin something no accounting report could.
“Your mother loved you fiercely. She was also terrified.”
“Of what?”
“Being poor again.”
Susan had grown up with almost nothing. After David died, every financial setback looked like the beginning of disaster. That fear explained why she kept emergency powers long after the emergency ended.
It did not excuse it.
Rebecca also confirmed David’s final instruction: Parker Legacy was supposed to move to independent management once Erin turned twenty-one.
Susan never made the transition.
By then, Meridian Grove depended on family collateral, and surrendering management would have exposed the problem.
The court ended Susan’s control permanently.
Meridian Grove was sold.
Madison’s education fund survived, damaged but intact.
Lily’s five-percent reserve was restored.
Erin’s undisclosed withdrawals were partially reimbursed.
No one got everything back.
That was reality.
One year after graduation, Erin returned to her university for an alumni event.
Madison came too, wearing jeans and a campus bookstore badge.
No Lamborghini.
No designer dress.
“You still telling people I lasted forty-three seconds?” Madison asked.
“Only when they ask.”
“I hate you.”
“Sure.”
Then Rachel called.
“The final beneficiary schedule arrived.”
Erin sighed.
“Please don’t say another secret daughter.”
“Not this time.”
But there was another name.
Not one of David’s children.
Susan Elaine Mercer.
And beneath it:
Anna Mercer — minor sister reserve.
Erin stopped walking.
May you like
Her mother had a sister nobody had ever mentioned.
And suddenly Susan’s obsession with making one daughter rescue another had a beginning.
