Chapter 4 - The Recording
No one moved.
The recording continued.
Victoria’s voice remained calm.
“Once the transfer is complete, the mansion can be cleared and the staff contracts terminated.”
Eleanor asked:
“Why?”
“Because sentimentality is expensive.”
Leah looked toward the house employees standing near the ballroom walls.
Some had served the Harrington family for decades.
They had raised children in the upstairs nursery.
Prepared meals through illnesses.
Stayed overnight during storms.
Victoria spoke about them like furniture scheduled for removal.
Arthur stopped the recording.
“How many staff members were you planning to dismiss?”
Victoria lifted her chin.
“Thirty-seven.”
“And the mansion?”
“It would be converted into a private investment club.”
Eleanor looked around the ballroom.
“My husband’s parents opened this house to veterans’ families during the war.”
Victoria replied:
“That history has no market value.”
Arthur’s expression hardened.
Then Leah removed a second document from the folder.
The transfer included more than the mansion.
It dissolved the Harrington Household Stewardship Fund.
For fifty-three years, a percentage of every employee’s wages had been placed into retirement accounts and affordable housing shares.
Victoria planned to merge that fund into the private club development.
The workers would receive fixed settlements.
Most were worth less than one year of their expected retirement benefits.
Victoria looked at Leah.
“You cannot understand these financial structures.”
Leah met her eyes.
“My mother contributed to that fund for twenty-eight years.”
The room went quiet.
Her mother died waiting for the apartment share she had been promised.
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Victoria had offered Leah ten thousand dollars to sign a release.
Then called it generosity.
