Paul steps forward. “It was. But just little pings on the account, almost like tests to see if we were watching.”
“Maybe scammers?” Dad says.
Or Zebulund wondering about my connection to the business.
My mother steps forward tentatively. “I didn’t know they were already taking care of things when I called about the vandalism. Turns out it really was just punk kids.”
“This is crazy. So there’s no issue?”
“Not anymore. Whoever was poking around at first stopped when the money disappeared.”
Zebulund must have thought I got scared and sent my money somewhere safe. Their actions to protect me only made me look worse.
Another question forms. “Why are you all here then?”
“We’re angry about the article. We want to clear your name. We were just deciding the best way to go about it.” She glances at my dad, sheepish. “There’s something else.”
“Okay.” I swallow.
“We want to close the factory.”
“Is it doing that bad? What about the jobs?” I run a hand over my face.
“That’s the thing. Your dad wants to retire. We want to travel while the grandkids are in school. Your siblings want to invest their money into new businesses. To be honest, the town doesn’t need the factory. We’re sort of tired of it.”
“But all the jobs? What will people do? When it closed last time it almost destroyed us.”
“Industry changes. We aren’t a factory town anymore. But we’re thriving. The factory’s been downsizing for some time. I was trying to do it slowly so you wouldn’t worry or feel guilty. But it sort of backfired.”
“Why all the secrets?”
“You stopped coming home. You stopped talking to us. You were obviously killing yourself working for us. We just didn’t want to make you feel like it was all for nothing. We thought we were doing the best thing for you at the time. We were going to tell you when it was closed so you could slow down.”
It’s weird having this conversation in front of the whole town but there aren’t secrets anyway.
“I’m fine. I really am. Work is work. But I don’t understand. The factory is closing?”
“Yes,” she says.
My brother studies the floor.
“And people are okay with it?” I look to the room. A hundred plus heads nod in agreement.
“But what will we do with the building?”
“That’s what we were meeting to discuss. And then that article went out.”
I’m taking this all in as I go back to the podium.
“I want you all to know that Maggie didn’t write that story. The Maggie May I know would never write that story. She is an honest, brave, strong person. She was trying to find out what was happening to the money.”
There are glares of disbelief but they keep listening.
“I don’t want you all thinking poorly of her. I was being blackmailed by a very bad man. And apparently, for much longer than I even knew. But nothing that happened had anything to do with Maggie.” I think of the strong-willed woman and can’t help but smile. “She’s wonderful and would do anything to help me.” And did.
I glance at my mother. She’s got knowing eyebrows. So that’s where I get them from.
“I only came home to make sure the factory was safe and you knew that I would never hurt this town. But now I see that was all for nothing.”
