Chapter 3 - THE BOY DIANE KEPT MENTIONING
Diane had one obsession Hannah had always treated as embarrassing family nonsense.
A boy named Noah.
Noah was nine.
Son of Ethan’s cousin, Michael Collins.
Diane adored him.
Birthday checks.
Baseball games.
Monogrammed jackets.
Christmas portraits.
She called him:
“the Collins boy.”
Not just a Collins boy.
The Collins boy.
Ethan laughed about it.
“My mom’s old-school.”
Hannah did not.
Then she remembered a dinner three months earlier.
Diane had said:
“If your father were alive, at least he’d know the name continues through Noah.”
Hannah answered:
“Sophie has the same last name.”
Diane replied:
“That’s different.”
At the time, Hannah thought:
sexist.
Now she wondered:
different how?
Ethan’s father, William Collins, had died five years earlier.
He founded Collins Industrial Supply.
Family company.
Regional.
Profitable.
At his death, voting shares went into a family holding structure.
Ethan owned some.
His sister owned some.
Diane controlled a large block as trustee under William’s estate plan.
Noah’s father Michael worked at the company.
Hannah did not.
Then Ethan said:
“There was always some old succession language.”
“What language?”
“I don’t know. Dad used to joke that the first grandkid would be his future chair.”
Hannah looked at Sophie.
First grandkid.
May you like
Not Noah.
Sophie.
