Chapter 11 - WADE'S CHOICE
Wade became the antagonist most capable of changing.
Not quickly.
At first he demanded his $500,000.
He said Richard had promised.
Grace answered:
“Then pursue Richard.”
Wade stared.
“He doesn’t have it.”
“That is not Iris’s legal problem.”
Wade looked at Iris.
“Legal.”
He said the word with contempt.
“Family doesn’t work like legal.”
Iris answered:
“That’s how you all got here.”
Then Wade disclosed why he had invested so much.
After his divorce, he was lonely.
Richard offered him partnership.
A role.
Family business.
Wade sold his house partly because he wanted belonging.
Richard told him:
“We’re building something for Iris too.”
Wade convinced himself his investment benefited her.
So when he expected repayment from her inheritance, it felt reciprocal.
Iris asked:
“Did I ever ask you to invest?”
“No.”
“Did I even know?”
“No.”
“Then you invested in Richard.”
Wade sat quietly.
For the first time, he stopped arguing.
Later he produced emails showing Richard repeatedly used Iris’s future money to reassure him.
Wade had ignored warning signs.
But he had also been manipulated.
Both.
Then he admitted something worse.
Two weeks before the birthday, Laura asked him:
“If Iris refuses, will you back us?”
He answered:
“Yes.”
“What did you think ‘back us’ meant?”
“Pressure.”
“Physical?”
“No.”
He looked ashamed.
“I thought we’d shame you.”
Iris stared.
He said it plainly.
Not better.
But honest.
Then Wade gave Grace a flash drive.
Richard’s business projections.
At the top of one spreadsheet:
May you like
IRIS EVENT — FUNDING DATE.
Her birthday had become a line item.
