Chapter 2 - The Anonymous Donor
Nobody spoke.
Isabella looked from Samuel Reed to Eleanor and laughed once, as if waiting for everyone else to admit this was a prank.
"That's impossible."
Victor stepped forward.
"Samuel, this is not the time."
"It became the time when you let your daughter humiliate the woman who saved that project."
"Please don't."
"You asked me to keep your name private. I did. But I will not stand here while they rewrite what happened."
Isabella turned to Eleanor.
"You paid for the Whitmore Family Children's Wing?"
"I helped cover a shortfall."
"How much?"
"One point eight million dollars."
The bridesmaids stopped whispering.
Charles looked at his mother.
"You never told me."
"It wasn't about you."
"Where did you get one point eight million dollars?"
"Mom."
"I sold the north acreage."
Rose Creek had been in the Bennett family for four generations. The north acreage was where his father had taught him to ride, where Eleanor grew pumpkins every fall, where Charles had buried his first dog under an oak tree.
"You sold eighty acres?"
"Seventy-two."
"For their foundation?"
Eleanor looked at the stained-glass windows.
"For the children's wing."
"This is being presented unfairly. Eleanor made a philanthropic contribution to a project my family created."
"Your project was thirty days from losing its matching grant."
Isabella stared at her father.
"You said the money came from the Whitmore reserve."
"We don't discuss foundation finances in a church."
"You discussed them in every interview I gave."
For months Isabella had told magazines, donors, and television hosts that her family had personally stepped in when the project ran short.
She had called it "the Whitmore promise."
"Why would you do this for them?"
Eleanor's answer was quiet.
"Because St. Matthew's Children's Center saved your life when you were six."
"And because Isabella told me the new wing was the thing she was most proud of."
"We are leaving."
"Not yet."
He opened the leather folder he had carried into the wedding.
"There's another problem. Eleanor's one-point-eight million should have closed the deficit completely."
Charles frowned.
"Should have?"
May you like
Samuel placed a financial statement on the front pew.
"Nine hundred thousand dollars is still missing."
