I mentioned, as if it were an afterthought, that it would help the documentation process if my father could briefly describe any prior instances where family funds had been allocated between siblings. Patterns, I said, were important to auditors.
My father sat up straighter. He looked directly into the lens of my phone.
“For the record,” he said, “we used Vanessa’s inheritance to fund James’s first business. It was all family money anyway.”
He said it without hesitation. He said it the way a man says something he has always believed.
I ended the recording.
The Truth of What Had Happened
I looked at each of them in turn.
Then I told them the truth.
I had not paid off James’s debt. I had purchased it. The note now belonged to my company. The documents they had signed were not forms for a bank transfer. They were legally enforceable guarantees, and they had just put their home and their wages behind them.
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