Chapter 6 - Sarah’s Warning
Sarah did not celebrate.
When Thomas told her they might be able to reclaim control, she asked:
“Is that what you want?”
“He stole from me.”
“That wasn't my question.”
Thomas looked irritated.
“He tried to sell the company.”
“I know.”
“He erased me.”
“I know.”
“He humiliated us.”
Sarah nodded.
“And now you want to destroy him.”
Thomas fell silent.
She sat beside him.
“For twenty-two years, you called David your brother.”
“He stopped acting like one.”
“Maybe.”
Thomas looked at her sharply.
“Maybe?”
“I think he betrayed you.”
“Thank you.”
“I also think you've spent twenty years pretending money couldn't change the balance between you.”
Thomas frowned.
Sarah continued.
“You funded everything.”
“Because he couldn't.”
“Exactly.”
“You think I held it over him?”
“Not intentionally.”
That hurt.
Sarah remembered dinners where Thomas joked that he “kept the lights on.”
Interviews where Thomas corrected financial numbers David got wrong.
Meetings where Thomas ended debates simply because his company guaranteed the debt.
None seemed cruel individually.
Together?
Maybe David had spent years feeling like a tenant in his own dream.
“That doesn't justify theft,” Sarah said.
“No.”
“It doesn't justify lying.”
“No.”
“But if you win everything back and learn nothing, what did you actually win?”
Thomas looked away.
The children were playing outside.
Noah’s little flag sat on the kitchen counter.
Thomas remembered David holding Emily as a baby.
David attending Sarah’s father's funeral.
David sleeping in the hospital waiting room when Thomas had emergency surgery.
Betrayal hurt precisely because the good years had been real.
Thomas said:
“I don't want revenge.”
May you like
Sarah gave him a look.
“Try saying that when you believe it.”
