Chapter 6 - The Liquidation
By mid-January, the reality of their financial situation hit the Brennan family with full, devastating force.
Without the Vanguard Operations trust subsidies, my parents could not afford the four-thousand-dollar monthly property tax, insurance, and maintenance costs for the renovated mansion in Indianapolis.
My legal team executed the foreclosure smoothly and legally.
I sat in my Austin office receiving live video updates from my property manager. A large yellow auction sign had been placed on the front lawn. Moving vans were parked in the heated driveway, loading up the marble tables, the leather couches, and the expensive Christmas decorations that my money had bought.
Mom and Dad were forced to move into a modest, two-bedroom rented apartment on the outskirts of town—the exact kind of place Dad used to mock when he felt superior to his working-class neighbors.
Tyler, completely broke after his boat charter business went under, had to move into their spare bedroom, taking a job as a retail associate at a local sporting goods store just to pay his credit card debt.
One afternoon, I received an email from my mother's personal account.
It wasn't angry. It was a scanned handwritten letter.
Dear Lucia,
I am writing this from a small kitchen table in our new apartment. Your father doesn't know I am sending this. He sits by the window all day, staring at the street, barely speaking.
I am not writing to ask for money. I know now that we will never get that back, and I understand why you are angry. Looking back at that night, I realize how terrible we were to little Ellie. I was so afraid of your father's temper that I let him hurt you and your daughter. I have been a coward my whole life.
I don't expect you to forgive me, but I want you to know that I am sorry. I miss my granddaughter. I miss the little girl who gave me a handmade Christmas card that I threw on a side table without really looking at it.
I found that card in one of our packing boxes yesterday. I have it framed on my wall now.
Love,
May you like
Mom
I read the letter twice, feeling a slight thaw in the ice around my heart, but I did not reply immediately. True change required time, not just sad letters.
