Vivian has carried more of Carter & Sons than anyone except me.
Do not punish competence because anger is easier to divide than work.
She should run the company if she wants it.
But she should not have to pretend Leon contributed nothing in order to justify her own contribution.
Vivian covered her mouth.
The first tear came.
Not when her father’s coffin lowered.
Now.
Walter reached toward her.
She waved him away.
James continued.
Leon was unreliable sometimes.
That is also true.
He was late.
He borrowed.
He chased ideas.
He hurt Vivian by leaving work she then had to carry.
Do not turn him into a saint because he died young.
Vivian started crying harder.
There.
The thing no one else said.
Leon had been loved.
Leon had also been exhausting.
After he left, Vivian worked twelve-hour days because Nathaniel refused to replace him properly.
When the second hearse transmission failed, Vivian arranged repairs.
When a flu outbreak overwhelmed staffing, Vivian embalmed beside her father all night despite being pregnant with Lillian.
When Walter asked why she gave so much to a business she did not control, Vivian always answered:
“Because somebody has to stay.”
Leon had not stayed.
That wound had grown around everything else.
James continued.
Vivian, if you are hearing this, I know what you did.
I know you stayed.
I also know I rewarded staying by giving you more work and gave Leon’s absence the romantic shine that comes when the absent one dies first.
That was unfair to you.
Vivian lowered her head.
Patricia cried quietly.
Walter finally put one hand on Vivian’s shoulder.
She did not move it away.
Nathaniel’s letter continued.
But Naomi is eight.
She did not leave you with payroll.
She did not choose Leon’s arguments.
She did not marry Ruby.
She did not keep bad records.
If you make that child pay for what grown people failed to settle, then you are doing to her exactly what I did to all of you: turning belonging into an account.
Naomi looked toward Vivian.
The woman could not meet her eyes.
James lowered the letter.
“There is more.”
Vivian whispered:
“Of course.”
The last portion concerned the girls.
Nathaniel had purchased both yellow dresses.
Lillian’s from Loveman’s department store.
Naomi’s through Ruby’s alterations department, using the same fabric sample.
He wanted both granddaughters wearing yellow because Evelyn Carter had dressed Vivian and Patricia in yellow for Easter every year when they were children.
Vivian stared at Naomi’s dress.
For three weeks she had believed Ruby copied Lillian intentionally.
She had even complained to Walter.
“She cannot let Lillian have one thing.”
Walter had said:
“Maybe the store sold two.”
Vivian dismissed him.
Now James read Nathaniel’s note.
If the girls are wearing the dresses I chose, somebody tell Vivian before she decides Ruby copied her.
The room became silent.
Walter looked at his wife.
Vivian almost laughed.
A broken, humiliating sound.
“Dead man is still arguing with me.”
Patricia actually smiled through tears.
“That sounds like Daddy.”
Naomi looked toward Vivian.
“Grandpa bought mine?”
“Yes.”
James answered.
“And Lillian’s?”
“Yes.”
The girls looked at each other.
Lillian smiled.
“See?”
Naomi smiled too.
For the first time that day.
Vivian began crying again.