Chapter 6 - Eleanor’s first surprise
My mother had not told Marietta to cut me off.
That threat was fiction.
At least not from anything Eleanor had said recently.
At the lake house she sat under a blanket with oxygen nearby but not continuously in use.
She looked smaller than usual.
Then she handed me a folder.
“This is what Marietta submitted for Aubrielle last year.”
Expenses:
Birthday venue.
Catering.
Decor.
Art class celebration.
Holiday gifts.
Total:
$18,760.
Reasonable.
Then:
Beneficiary notes.
Primary family child: Claire Cole
I stared.
“That’s wrong.”
“I know.”
Another line:
Secondary supported child: Aubrielle Reed Bennett
Supported child.
Not standard wording.
I asked:
“Who added that?”
“Marietta.”
Then program status:
Claire:
Direct family descendant.
Aubrielle:
Family discretionary support.
I looked at my mother.
“They are both your granddaughters.”
“Yes.”
“Then why is one discretionary?”
“I did not know she had changed the classification.”
How could Marietta change it?
The program was informal.
No legal beneficiary ledger.
Just internal accounting categories.
Eleanor’s assistant, Paula Finch, had accepted Marietta’s explanation that Aubrielle’s expenses needed separate coding because:
“Her mother’s estate may reimburse part.”
Samantha’s estate had nothing to do with birthday costs.
Marietta used administrative ambiguity.
Then gift reimbursements.
A $2,400 jewelry purchase intended for Aubrielle’s sixth birthday had been reclassified:
Recipient:
Claire Cole.
Why?
Note:
May you like
Weston requested age adjustment; item more appropriate for older child.
I had requested nothing.
