I did not correct the family publicly.
That was cowardice dressed as avoiding conflict.
Vivian stopped breathing.
Ruby stared at the floor.
James continued.
Leon asked me to make the correction.
I told him there would be time.
There was not.
The room became still.
Leon Carter died on October 7, 1966, after his car was struck by a truck during heavy rain outside Montgomery.
Twenty-seven years old.
Naomi had been five.
She remembered pieces.
Her father singing badly.
His shaving brush.
The smell of aftershave.
Hands lifting her onto his shoulders.
A yellow pencil behind one ear.
Not death.
Adults had hidden most of that.
James continued.
The second issue is the business.
Vivian’s jaw tightened.
There.
She had expected money eventually.
Everyone did.
Nathaniel’s will had been discussed in whispers since his diagnosis.
Carter & Sons owned its funeral home building, a smaller branch property, three hearses, two limousines, several insurance policies, and surrounding land that had increased sharply in value.
Vivian had run operations for seven years.
She expected control.
Not entitlement exactly.
Work.
She had earned something.
James continued.
Carter & Sons Funeral Services is presently owned on paper as follows:
Nathaniel Carter — eighty percent.
Vivian Carter Hughes — twenty percent.
Vivian nodded slightly.
That was correct.
James continued.
That paper is incomplete.
Her head snapped up.
Reverend Porter opened a ledger.
Nathaniel’s letter continued.
Leon purchased an interest in the business beginning in 1959 through deferred salary and capital contributions.
By December 1963, his internal capital account represented twenty-five percent of the company.
Stock certificates were prepared.
I did not issue them.
Vivian stared.
“No.”
Reverend Porter looked toward her.
“Yes.”
“You kept books?”
“I kept tax books.”
Nathaniel kept the capital ledger himself.”
He opened an older brown ledger.
“James found it in the safe after Nathaniel became ill.”
Vivian stood again.
“My brother did not own twenty-five percent.”
James answered:
“Legally, that is complicated.”
“Economically, Nathaniel believed he did.”
“Believed?”
Vivian laughed.
“My father could believe anything in a letter.”
Reverend Porter looked offended.
“He made entries for five years.”
Vivian turned.
“Leon left.”
“Yes.”
“He stopped working here.”
“Yes.”
“He took money.”
Ruby’s face tightened.
Vivian continued.
“He borrowed from Daddy constantly.”
James raised one hand.
“Some of that is documented.”
Vivian looked toward him.
“Exactly.”
“Let us finish documenting all of it.”
She sat.
Barely.
The capital ledger told a story no one had known completely.
Leon began working at Carter & Sons full time after high school.