Chapter 2 - The Drawer
I locked the door.
Vanessa laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
"This is insane. Your mother needs a doctor, not a dramatic family meeting."
"She's getting both."
I called the private nurse stationed downstairs and told her to come immediately. Then I crossed to the writing desk.
"Key," I said.
Vanessa moved before I did.
"Eleanor, don't."
Grace noticed it too.
Inside was a thick blue folder stamped with the logo of Cross Technologies, my company.
CALEB BENNETT.
Grace made a broken sound behind me.
"My husband," she whispered.
Caleb had been dead for nine years.
I knew almost nothing about him. Grace rarely spoke about the accident that killed him, only that Marcus had been three and she had been left with hospital bills, a mortgage, and grief.
I opened the blue folder.
Twelve percent of my privately held voting shares were to be placed in a protected trust for Grace Bennett and her son Marcus.
"Mom, what is this?"
Vanessa folded her arms. "Exactly what I told you. She's giving away your company."
Eleanor struggled upright.
"No. I'm returning something that never belonged to us."
Grace stared at her.
"Mrs. Cross?"
My mother looked at Grace with tears gathering in her eyes.
"Caleb owned part of Adrienne's company before anyone on Wall Street had heard her name."
I had started Cross Technologies from a rented storage unit and a laptop held together with electrical tape. I had slept in my car. I knew every person who had helped me.
"Caleb never invested in me."
"Not under his own name," Eleanor said.
Vanessa reached for the folder.
"Don't touch it."
My mother pointed to the yellow envelope.
"Open that."
At the bottom was my signature.
Beside it was the signature of a company I had forgotten existed.
Bennett Ridge Holdings.
May you like
And under that, in faint blue ink, was the name of its owner.
Caleb Bennett.
