Page 23 of Fierce-Matt
“I want to take your mother to lunch today,” her father said.
“Lunch sounds nice,” Matt said, returning to the room. “Going anywhere special?”
“What’s the name of that place you love so much?” her father asked her mother.
Her father never offered to take her mother to lunch. There was no special place, but Matt wouldn’t know that.
The tears springing into her mother’s eyes told a story that a stranger to their life wouldn’t comprehend.
“We’ll talk about it later, Elliot. Why don’t we focus on the important things right now?”
“That’s right,” Elliot said. “Your mother wants me to sign everything over to her. I told her she doesn’t know how to run the business, but maybe she’ll do a better job than I have. Shelly hasn’t been in for weeks.”
Her heart ached listening to him talk. “Remember why she’s not there, Dad? She stole a lot of money from you.”
“She did?” her father asked. “Oh yeah. She did. What a bitch.”
Nothing could stop the laugh from running free. Even Matt smirked over that. “I’m sorry for what happened. Anya has filled me in.”
“I’ve got all the medical documents you might need,” her mother said, pulling out a folder. “In case things get tricky.”
Her mother was nodding to her father.
Rather than Matt asking why, he reached for the folder and opened it up, scanned the documents, then set it down. “This works. Do we want to start with transferring the business into your name?”
“It’s in my name and his,” her mother said. “I think that might take too long to do. If I have legal authority and medical proxies in place, I can negotiate all of that, right? He’ll just need to sign?”
Which was why they were pushing for this now. Her father had good and bad days and if they could get him there to sign and explain it, it’d be less of a hassle.
“We’ll tackle those things. Anya said you have a will already. Did you bring a copy of it?”
“I couldn’t find it,” her mother said. “I’ve got one more place to look. This was all so sudden. Anya has been wonderful helping and she’s right. We need to do this now. She came over on Friday and pushed for this right away, so I’m playing catch-up.”
She didn’t need Matt to think she was greedy. “We’ve been talking about this for months, Mom.”
“Yes, we have. After the call with EJ it felt like we had to expedite the legal end. I guess it feels final,” her mother said.
This was hard on everyone, but it had to be done. The sooner, the better. They had to push through.
If it meant closing the door on memories of her father, then it did.
He wasn’t the man he’d been when she was growing up. She feared taking all these steps did make it feel more real to her. To know one day he wouldn’t remember their talks, the good times, maybe even who she was.
“When did you talk to EJ?” her father asked, his face turning from the nice guy that wanted to treat her mother to lunch to the man that fought nonstop with his son. “He won’t return my calls.”
Her mother had slipped bringing up EJ’s name. They were careful not to have anything agitate her father. It was a trigger in a way and the more worked up he was, the harder it was for him to focus.
“Mom meant the call with Ethan,” she lied. “Your manager.”
“Oh. Yeah, Ethan’s a good guy. I wonder if he wants to buy the business. Did you ask him?”
“You can ask him later today if you want?” she said.
The employees were told on Monday what was going on. She understood if anyone wanted to leave, and they felt they should be given an opportunity to look for a job before they lost one.
Ethan had been holding down the fort in the past several months, as her father wasn’t in daily.
When he was in, her father wasn’t always aware of what was going on and it was becoming more hassle than it was worth on everyone’s part.
