Chapter 7 - My Mother’s RuleDiane agreed to meet in a diner.
Public place.
No Sadie.
No Walter.
She arrived carrying the master ledger.
Not a copy.
Brown leather.
Edges worn smooth.
Callum stared.
“How long?”
“Since you were born.”
She opened the first page.
Hospital bill.
Diapers.
Formula.
Preschool.
Callum laughed once.
“You billed me for diapers?”
“I recorded what things cost.”
“Why?”
“Because nobody recorded it for me.”
Diane pulled another notebook from her purse.
Smaller.
Red cover.
Her childhood name:
DIANE MILLER.
Milk — 8 cents.
School shoes — $4.10.
Doctor — $6.
Heat — 25 cents.
Backtalk — 10 cents.
Callum looked up.
“My grandmother did this?”
“Yes.”
“You hated her.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you do it to me?”
Diane’s face broke.
“I told myself mine was different.”
“How?”
“I never collected from you as a child.”
“You waited.”
She flinched.
Callum continued.
“And then you did it to Sadie.”
“I wanted her to understand gratitude.”
“She tried to pay me for a bath.”
Diane started crying.
Callum did not soften the sentence.
“She thinks stories cost money.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“I know.”
He leaned forward.
“That doesn't help her.”
Diane looked at the ledger.
“When Bay Four happened, Walter thought he was going to lose the company.”
“So you made me believe I caused it.”
“I thought if you believed you had responsibility, you wouldn’t destroy your father.”
“By telling the truth.”
“Yes.”
There.
Diane wiped her face.
“I kept the $43,780 on your account because I told myself one day Walter would repay Marcus.”
“You charged me with remembering his theft.”
“I know.”
“No. You know now.”
Diane pushed the master ledger toward him.
“Take it.”
“Why?”
“Because Walter is offering you the company.”
Callum stared.
“What?”
“He thinks if you own Calder Mechanical, you’ll stop this.”
“He wants to bribe me with the thing he says I owe him.”
Diane looked down.
“There’s more.”
Callum waited.
She pointed to the last section.
Fourteen employee accounts.
Then twenty-three.
Then thirty-one.
The system had grown.
Tools.
Medical costs.
Uniforms.
Training.
Housing help.
Funeral advances.
Workers paid back through payroll deductions.
Sometimes for years.
Callum looked at his mother.
“You turned the whole company into the house.”
Diane whispered, “Yes.”
Then her phone rang.
Walter.
She declined.
It rang again.
Callum's phone buzzed next.
A message.
Come to the plant tonight. Sign the ownership transfer and all of this becomes your problem instead of mine.
The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
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