Chapter 4 - Grandfather’s Ledger
Leah asked them not to confront Darrell again until she could see the banking records.
Jada lasted until lunchtime.
She did not call him.
She called her mother.
Tamika answered on the first ring.
“Baby.”
“Stop calling me that when you’re lying.”
Silence.
Jada stood outside Leah’s office while Renee signed a representation agreement inside.
“Is there a contract?”
“What?”
“The contract Darrell keeps talking about.”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“A municipal renovation project.”
“With who?”
“Jada, I don’t know every business detail.”
“How much is it worth?”
“Enough to repay the account.”
“That isn’t a number.”
Tamika’s voice tightened.
“Why are you interrogating me?”
“Because you spent ninety-two thousand dollars that wasn’t yours.”
“I did not spend it.”
“You transferred it.”
“To an investment.”
“Yesterday you called it a loan.”
Another silence.
Jada closed her eyes.
“Which one is true?”
“Both.”
“That’s not how money works.”
“You’re eighteen.”
Jada almost laughed.
“And apparently that made me old enough to finance a forty-six-year-old man’s company.”
“Don’t be disrespectful.”
There it was again.
Tone.
Respect.
Family hierarchy.
All the weapons adults used when facts stopped helping them.
“Did you know Darrell told the bank my trust money was family investment capital?”
Tamika did not answer.
“Mom.”
“Darrell said the wording was necessary.”
“For what?”
“The loan application.”
“So the business could borrow more money?”
“Yes.”
“Using my money to prove it had money?”
“Working capital.”
“Money it didn’t have.”
“Jada—”
“Was there ever a plan to put it back?”
“Of course.”
“In writing?”
“Yes.”
“Aunt Renee’s forged signature is also in writing.”
Tamika inhaled sharply.
“You shouldn’t be talking to Renee about this.”
Jada went still.
“She is literally the person whose name you forged.”
“She has hated Darrell from the beginning.”
“Maybe she had reasons.”
“She thinks nobody is good enough for me.”
“No. She thinks stealing my college fund is bad.”
Tamika’s voice cracked.
“I was trying to save this family.”
“What family?”
“You, me, Darrell.”
“You keep putting his name in the sentence like that makes us equal.”
Tamika said nothing.
Jada’s anger rose again.
“What happens if the company fails?”
“It won’t.”
“What happens if it does?”
“It won’t.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s going to work.”
“You sound like someone at a casino.”
Tamika hung up.
Jada stared at the phone.
Renee emerged from the office.
“How bad?”
“She still thinks he’s going to save everybody.”
Renee shook her head.
“She always did love a rescue mission.”
“Did Grandpa keep records?”
“Every penny.”
“Where?”
Renee stopped walking.
Then she looked toward the parking garage.
“Maybe.”
Twenty-five minutes later they were at Renee’s house again.
She climbed into the attic.
Jada waited below while boxes scraped overhead.
“What are you looking for?”
“Daddy’s tax box.”
“You have his taxes?”
“I have everything.”
“That sounds unhealthy.”
“It is extremely useful today.”
Renee came down holding a black plastic file crate coated in dust.
They opened it at the dining table.
Old pay stubs.
Retirement statements.
Insurance records.
Property tax receipts.
Then a spiral notebook.
ISAIAH — JADA EDUCATION.
Jada touched the cover carefully.
Inside, Isaiah had handwritten every contribution.
$250 birthday.
$500 overtime bonus.
$1,000 tax refund.
$150 Christmas.
Larger transfers appeared after he sold an old rental property.
Near the back, he had totaled everything.
Original trust principal: $80,000.
Then beneath it:
Tamika trustee.
Renee oversight.
Jada beneficiary.
NO EXCEPTIONS FOR BOYFRIENDS, BUSINESS DEALS, FAMILY PRESSURE, OR “TEMPORARY” BORROWING.
Renee snorted despite herself.
“That sounds like Daddy.”
Jada smiled through tears.
“He literally wrote boyfriends.”
“He knew us.”
Jada flipped another page.
A note had been taped inside.
Tamika,
If Jada succeeds, do not punish her by treating her opportunities as communal property. Help her. Do not use her discipline to excuse somebody else’s irresponsibility.
Jada read it twice.
Then a third time.
Renee leaned back.
“He wrote that for your mother.”
“Why?”
“Because Tamika did something similar once.”
Jada looked up.
“What?”
Renee’s face showed immediate regret.
“No.”
“You can’t say that and stop.”
“It was years ago.”
“What did she do?”
Renee crossed her arms.
“When your mother was twenty-four, Grandma gave her six thousand dollars to finish nursing school.”
“Mom went to nursing school?”
“For a year.”
“What happened?”
“She gave most of the money to your biological father.”
“My father?”
“No. Tamika’s father.”
Jada blinked.
“He came back?”
“For three months.”
“What did he need?”
“A truck.”
Jada stared at the notebook.
“So she quit school.”
“Yes.”
“Because she gave him her tuition money.”
“Yes.”
The pattern suddenly became visible.
It was not about Darrell.
Darrell had stepped into a space already carved inside Tamika.
A place where love meant rescue.
Where sacrifice proved loyalty.
Where the person with a future was expected to be patient while someone else consumed it.
Jada closed the notebook.
“That doesn’t make me feel sorry for her.”
“It shouldn’t have to.”
“It makes me angrier.”
“That makes sense too.”
Jada looked at Isaiah’s warning.
Help her. Do not use her discipline to excuse somebody else’s irresponsibility.
Grandfather had predicted the logic.
Not Darrell.
Not the exact amount.
The logic.
Jada’s phone buzzed.
A bank alert.
ACCOUNT ACCESS UPDATED.
She frowned.
“What is that?”
Renee leaned over.
Jada tried to log in.
PASSWORD INCORRECT.
She tried again.
ACCOUNT LOCKED.
Renee’s expression hardened.
“Your mother locked you out.”
Jada called Tamika.
No answer.
She tried again.
Voicemail.
Then a text arrived.
From Darrell.
You have lawyers involved now, so communication goes through adults.
Jada stared at the message.
Then slowly looked at Renee.
“I am an adult.”
Renee nodded.
“Yes, you are.”
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Jada opened Isaiah’s notebook to the page listing the trust account number.
“Then let’s act like it.”
