The Yacht
Chapter 03 - The Yacht
Madison found her sister an hour later, in the small tent set aside for the wedding party, Emily's crutches propped against a folding chair while a bridesmaid retaped fresh gauze over her knee.
"You didn't have to do that in front of everyone," Madison said. Arms crossed. Not quite meeting her sister's eyes.
"Do what," Emily said. "Tell the truth?"
"Embarrass Mom and Dad on my wedding, on your wedding day," Madison corrected herself, flustered.
"I didn't bring up the yacht to embarrass anyone," Emily said. "I brought it up because it's true, and I'm done pretending it isn't."
Madison sat down across from her, expensive dress pooling around her like she hadn't quite decided if she was staying.
"I didn't know," she said quietly. "About the surgery money. I swear, Em, I didn't know you asked them for anything."
Emily studied her sister's face, looking for the tell she used to be so good at reading back when they shared a bedroom and every secret that came with it.
She didn't find one. That was almost worse.
"You didn't know," Emily repeated. "You got a forty-two foot boat eleven days after I nearly lost part of my leg, and you never once wondered why Mom and Dad suddenly had money to burn."
"They said it was an early inheritance thing," Madison said. "From Grandpa Ellis's trust. I didn't ask more than that. I know that sounds bad."
Emily went very still.
"Grandpa Ellis's trust," she said slowly, "was split evenly between us. That was the whole point of it. He set it up that way specifically because he didn't trust Dad not to play favorites."
Madison's face changed, something uncertain moving behind her eyes.
"That's not what they told me," she said. "They said the trust matured different amounts depending on age, that I was owed the bigger share because I turned twenty five first."
"That's not how the trust works," Emily said. "I read the documents. I was there when the lawyer explained it to both of us. Equal shares. Both of us. Same year."
The tent went quiet except for the distant sound of the reception starting up again outside, laughter and clinking glasses carrying on without them.
May you like
"Em," Madison said, voice smaller now. "What are you saying."
"I'm saying," Emily said, "that either they lied to you about how much you were owed, or they lied to me about how much was left. Maybe both. And I want to know which, before I let this be just a dock scene everyone forgets about by next wedding season."
