Chapter 13
Brennan requested one meeting with Estelle before entering a plea.
Not Cassian.
Estelle.
Miriam recommended against private contact.
The lawyers proposed a supervised meeting if Estelle wanted it.
Everyone looked at her.
She became irritated.
“Why are you all staring at me?”
Cassian answered.
“Because it’s your decision.”
That softened her slightly.
She agreed.
Cassian waited outside.
He did not hear the conversation.
He did not ask afterward.
Estelle told him anyway.
“He cried.”
Cassian said nothing.
“He said he thought the company was being taken away from the family.”
“He did.”
“He said your restructuring would make our name meaningless.”
Cassian looked at her.
“What did you say?”
“That if a name needs an old woman hungry to stay powerful, it deserves to mean less.”
Cassian smiled faintly.
Then Estelle’s eyes filled.
“He was such a sweet little boy.”
The sentence hurt.
Cassian sat beside her.
She continued.
“He used to sleep on the floor next to my bed when thunderstorms came.”
Cassian remembered.
Brennan at eight.
Skinny knees.
Blanket dragging behind him.
A child afraid of thunder became a forty-year-old man willing to weaken his own mother for voting control.
Both were real.
That was the difficulty.
“Did you forgive him?” Cassian asked.
Estelle looked at him sharply.
“You really learned nothing from Miriam.”
Cassian almost laughed.
“Sorry.”
“Forgiveness is not a court date.”
She stood slowly.
“I’m tired.”
The meeting ended there.
Brennan later accepted a plea that included elder-abuse-related charges, attempted financial exploitation, and conspiracy-related conduct supported by the documents.
He received a prison sentence.
Not life.
Not some theatrical punishment.
Years.
Restitution.
Loss of fiduciary authority.
Permanent removal from positions involving Estelle’s finances.
Lavinia reached her own agreement later.
Her role was substantial but different.
She received a shorter custodial sentence followed by supervision and restitution obligations connected to both Estelle’s care and foundation finances.
Cassian attended neither sentencing for revenge.
May you like
He attended because Estelle asked him to sit beside her.
So he did.
