Chương 2 - Câu Chuyện Của Những Cái Tên

“If you come with us to the cemetery, you come because Michael Bennett was your father. Not because I passed some loyalty test.”

Ryan rubbed his forehead.

Carol stepped forward.

“Maybe everybody needs to calm down.”

Elaine turned on her.

“You announced this at his visitation.”

“Lauren announced it.”

“And you looked pretty pleased.”

Carol flushed.

Lauren snapped, “Leave her out of this.”

I laughed.

Not because anything was funny.

Because the alternative was screaming.

“You made your mother-in-law part of this last night.”

Lauren took a breath.

Then she said, “Fine.”

I waited.

“The name isn’t changing back.”

“I heard you the first time.”

“The court order is already signed.”

I looked at her.

“What court order?”

Ryan’s head came up.

Lauren glanced at him.

Then back at me.

“The legal name change.”

“When did you file?”

She hesitated.

That hesitation lasted maybe two seconds.

It felt longer.

“When, Lauren?”

“Last month.”

Michael had been alive last month.

He had been in hospice.

I felt something in me go very still.

“You filed while your father was alive.”

“We knew what we wanted.”

“Did he know?”

She didn’t answer.

I asked again.

“Did your father know?”

Ryan said, “Diane—”

“Did he?”

Lauren’s mouth tightened.

“No.”

Elaine whispered, “Jesus.”

Lauren looked at me like she was bracing for an explosion.

I didn’t give her one.

I nodded once.

“All right.”

“Mom—”

“You made your decision.”

I picked up my coat.

“What are you doing?”

“Going to bury my husband.”

“The procession doesn’t leave for another hour.”

“I know.”

I looked toward the room where Michael was waiting.

“You decide whether you’re coming.”

Lauren stood there.

When the hearse left the funeral home, she was not in the line of cars behind it.

Neither was Ryan.

Neither were his parents.

At the cemetery, the wind was brutal.

Elaine stood on one side of me.

Michael’s oldest friend stood on the other.

I watched them lower the man I had loved for thirty-four years into the ground.

I kept thinking there should have been one more person beside me.

There wasn’t.

—

Nine days after we buried Michael, I went back to Bennett Foods.

I had not been inside the building since the week he entered hospice.

My parking space near the side entrance was occupied.

Ryan’s black SUV sat in it.

I parked in visitor parking.

That should have warned me.

I walked to the employee entrance and held my badge to the reader.

Red.

I tried again.

Red.

The security guard behind the desk stood up immediately.

His name was Marcus.

He had worked for us for six years.

“Mrs. Bennett.”

“My badge isn’t working.”

His face told me the answer before he spoke.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

He glanced toward the elevators.

“Administration deactivated it Friday.”

“Administration meaning who?”

He swallowed.

“Ms. Bennett.”

My daughter had disabled my building access.

“To my company.”

Marcus looked miserable.

“I was told you’re no longer involved in operations and all visits need to be scheduled.”

I stared at him.

Then I walked to the lobby.

“I’ll wait.”

“Mrs. Bennett, I can call upstairs.”

“Please do.”

I sat on a gray chair beneath a framed photograph of the first Bennett Foods plant.

Michael and I were in that photograph.

I was thirty-six.

He was thirty-nine.

We were both wearing hard hats that looked too big for us.

I waited forty-five minutes.

Then the elevator doors opened.

Lauren stepped out carrying a cardboard box.

She was followed by an administrative assistant.

Lauren set the box on the table in front of me.

Inside was my coffee mug.

A framed photograph of Michael and me.

Two notebooks.

A small plant I had kept in my office for years.

And the cheap wooden pen holder Noah had made me at preschool.

I looked up.

“What is this?”

“I had your office cleared.”

“My office.”

“Mom, you haven’t worked out of it in almost a year.”

“I was taking care of your dying father.”

Her expression tightened.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“What did you mean?”

She sat across from me.

“Bennett Foods needs a clean leadership structure.”

I looked toward the security desk.

Marcus was pretending not to hear us.

Lauren lowered her voice.

“You and Dad put me in charge.”

“We made you CEO.”

“Yes.”

“We did not make me a stranger.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“You shut off my badge.”

“To prevent confusion.”

I stared at her.

“With whom?”

“The staff.”

I actually smiled.

“So the staff might get confused if one of the founders walks through the door.”

She leaned back.

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to have this conversation here.”

“You brought my office here in a box.”

That landed.

She looked away.

Then she reached into her bag and took out a folder.

“I was going to have our attorney send these to you, but since you’re here…”

She pushed the folder toward me.

I opened it.

Voting proxy.

Expanded bank-signing authority.

Authority over executive hiring.