Chapter 20 - Letters from the Past
That evening, after a simple dinner of roasted cod and fresh greens, a rare delivery arrived at our gate—a single, thick manila envelope left by the local postal carrier in the wooden box down by the main road.
Adrien brought it inside, placing it on the kitchen island under the warm glow of the hanging brass pendant lights. The return address was stamped simply: The Mercer Educational Trust, Legal Compliance Division, New York.
I stared at the envelope for a long moment, a faint knot tightening in my stomach. Even a thousand miles away, the tentacles of our past life still occasionally tried to reach us.
“Do you want me to burn it?” Adrien asked quietly, his hand resting reassuringly on my shoulder.
“No,” I said, taking a steady breath. “Let’s see what they want. We left our affairs entirely settled, but transparency is the price of total freedom.”
I picked up a paring knife, slit the top of the envelope, and pulled out a single letter on heavy cream-colored cardstock, along with a certified financial audit summary.
It was a formal notification from the trustees confirming that the final phase of the foundation’s regional endowment had been successfully distributed to underprivileged schools across the Northeast, fulfilling my father’s original vision down to the final dollar. Furthermore, the audit confirmed that all remaining holding entities tied to Moretti Global and Mercer Holdings had been cleanly dissolved into public charitable trusts.
There were no threats, no hidden clauses, no corporate traps. Just the final, legal punctuation mark on a closed chapter.
I let out a long, slow breath I didn't realize I’d been holding, letting the papers drop back onto the counter.
“Well?” Adrien asked gently.
May you like
“It’s over,” I whispered, a brilliant, relieved smile breaking across my face. “Every last vestige of the old empire has been converted into education and public good. We’re officially ghosts to the corporate world.”
Adrien pulled me into his arms, burying his face in my neck, laughing softly with pure, unadulterated relief. “Then let’s celebrate. No lawyers, no trusts, no audits. Just us.”
