When speaking to investors, I was part of the “family leadership team.”
When applying for certain small-business incentives, my name appeared as an executive spouse.
But whenever responsibility appeared, I vanished.
No workers’ compensation.
No formal salary.
No ownership after 2013.
No claim from the fire.
No legal liability to me.
Victor had converted my labor into his mythology and my injuries into paperwork problems.
Then Grace presented something I had never known existed until three months earlier.
A life insurance policy.
My name.
Victor as beneficiary.
$2.5 million.
Purchased eleven months before the fryer explosion.
I stared at the screen.
Even now, knowing it was coming, my skin felt cold.
Victor said, “That is normal estate planning.”
Grace nodded.
“It can be.”
“Then what are you implying?”
“I have not implied anything.”
“You just put it up there.”
“Yes.”
Gerald stood.
“Your Honor, I strongly object to counsel creating a prejudicial insinuation.”
