Page 48 of Blackout

The doorbell rang again, but it wouldn’t be the last time it would ring. If my grandparents were on the other side, then Brad the lawyer was yet to arrive. Or vice versa. When I looked through the peep hole, I could see my grandparents on the other side. They didn’t look impressed but at least they’d bothered to turn up and hear me out. I opened the door and let them in. It wasn’t until I entered the kitchen that my grandparents greeted everyone in my living room.

‘So, why are we here?’ my grandfather asked.

The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. ‘To congratulate Addison on her pregnancy.’ Whether my grandfather believed my words or not, I would never know.

Everyone was here for a reason other than to congratulate Addison. I was just waiting on Brad to arrive before I said anything. My grandparents sat down at my kitchen table, the same as four weeks ago. I poured two more glasses of water for them and offered biscuits to everyone.

The doorbell rang again, and I hoped Brad was standing on the other side of my front door. I sighed in relief as I opened my door to let the lawyer in.

‘Everyone’s in the living room,’ I said. Brad followed me down my hallway and stood next to me before we began.

Everyone turned their attention to Brad, but nobody spoke. Were they perplexed as to why he was here? I opened my mouth to start this family meeting, but no words came out. What was I meant to say anyway, to get this meeting underway. Somehow it didn’t matter that I hadn’t spoken as Brad had stepped forward.

‘Mr and Mrs James. Mia. It’s been a few years since we last saw each other. You all look well.’ Brad said before he turned his attention towards Addison and moved closer to her. ‘You must be Addison. I’m Brad Waters. I was your father’s lawyer.’

Brad outstretched his hand for Addison to shake. When she had shaken his hand, he made his way back to stand next to me. A momentary glance around my silent living room told me my guests were waiting for me to start. Waiting for me to explain why I had asked everyone to meet only four weeks after our last family meeting.

‘I don’t know what happened at the reading of my dad’s Will, or after his funeral, but our family fell apart. As hard as it is to admit, it has taken a long time for me to realise that this family is broken. We all have drifted into our own solitary lives, and we can’t keep going on like this, not now that I won’t be managing the bakery anymore.’

No one was staring at Brad anymore; their attention was solely focused on me. I even had Addison’s attention. ‘Dad wouldn’t have wanted us to drift away the way we have, but we can’t change that. We can only move forward. Dad had taken over ownership of the James Family Bakery before he died, and if he left everything in his Will to Mum, then the bakery is Mum’s to manage.’

The bakery had always been my mother’s to manage, and why for the last ten years she hadn’t, I may never understand.

‘Oh, Harley.’ Hearing my name had me turning to look at my mother. ‘What you have to realise is that your father was the love of my life, and carrying on his dreams while he wasn’t here was too much to cope with at the time. Your dad had grand plans, which I’m sure you know about if you’ve read through his work folder. I noticed it as I walked in.’

I nodded my head but didn’t say anything.

My mother spoke again. ‘Your dad wanted you to follow in his footsteps, Harley. To be his apprentice and one day take over the business. Your father wanted to pass on the family tradition.’

‘But you let Grandpa continue to manage the bakery?’ Not once had I thought that the reason I couldn’t upgrade the James Family Bakery was because I needed Mum’s approval to sign off on everything. But I hadn’t known the ownership of the bakery was Dad’s before I’d read through his work folder. I’d thought Grandpa still owned it. Nor had I known my dad’s dreams were exactly what I’d wanted to do with the bakery: the upgrades to the factory, the expansion of our brand, more shops and another factory.

‘Yes, Harley,’ my mother replied. ‘I wasn’t the baker in the family. Your father was, because his father had trained him.

In my mother’s silence, I realised she had a point.

‘Allowing Grandpa to manage the bakery while he trained you allowed part of your dad’s dream to come true. I also wasn’t in a position to manage it.’

‘When you took over managing the bakery,’ Grandpa James said, ‘I told your mother it was time she joined us there, but she disagreed and told me she needed more time. Mia said she was still getting back on her feet and that you were doing a great job of managing the bakery in her place.’

So had Grandpa James kicked us all out of his house because Mum wasn’t ready to work at the bakery? Or because I had begun to manage the family business? Or had we all simply outgrown each other and needed our own space?

Addison had reached out her hand and placed it on our mother’s knee. ‘What was Dad’s plan for me?’ Addison asked with sarcasm, questioning where she fit in with a family of bakers.

When Addison made eye contact, Mum replied, ‘Addison, your father knew you had his mile-wide wild streak and carefree nature that couldn’t be tied down to any one spot. He knew you were more likely to run away and join a band than you were to help with the bakery.’

‘Oh,’ fell out of Addison’s mouth before she commented. ‘But Dad settled down eventually.’

‘And he knew eventually you would too.’ My mother squeezed Addison’s hand. ‘And if you want to work at the bakery and one day manage it, you have to be trained the same as Harley.’

Addison nodded in understanding but didn’t say anything else because the moment she was sharing with our mother was interrupted. Brad had spoken.

‘Ethan James knew that if anything happened to him, his wife would be devastated. Unfortunately, no one knew how long Mia would be devastated for. Which is why when Ethan took over ownership of the bakery, he came to me to set up a family trust. Every asset Ethan owned at the time and planned to own in the future would go into that trust. For the last ten years, I have overseen the James Family Trust, and now that you’re managing the bakery, Mia, you can manage the family trust as well.’

‘Family trust? What assets?’ Why was this the first time I was hearing about my dad having set up a family trust? Were the details of the trust explained when the Will was read and because I was underage, was never told? And did Mum never say anything about having a family trust because of her depression? A family trust was not something you forgot about, even if Brad had been overseeing it. How had the trust my dad set up over ten years ago survived all these years? Had it survived because of me? Because of my effort to get up and go to work every day?

I had spent a whole day with Brad’s paralegals talking about the plans in my dad’s work folder and there was never any mention of a family trust. Why had my mother not mentioned there was a family trust? A trust that singlehandedly survived because I had been managing the family business.

I now needed to work out if being a baker and working at the James Family Bakery was what I really wanted. As I had singlehandedly kept the family business operational for the last five years, my break from the James Family Bakery would be indefinite.