CHAPTER 10: Page Four Floats Back

The guardianship papers had not drowned.
Maren had slipped copies into a waterproof sleeve beneath Leo’s jacket before they went upstairs, not because she expected to fall, but because she had learned never to attend a Cross family event without proof close to the child they wanted to control.
The sleeve came back from the rescue bag with seawater on the outside and every ugly clause safe within.
Temporary guardianship. Trustee substitution. Maternal incapacity review. Emergency corporate voting alignment.
An officer read the page once, then again, his face becoming less professional and more human by the paragraph.
“They wanted you to sign this tonight?”
“Before midnight,” Maren said.
“Why midnight?”
Maren looked toward the harbor lights. “Because tomorrow morning Cross Maritime was scheduled to announce a merger. Leo’s trust carries the shares that can stop it.”
Leo stirred in her lap but did not wake.
Maren smoothed his wet hair back from his forehead.
“Declan left those shares to him,” she said. “Not to me. Not to Gideon. To his son, with me as protector until Leo turns twenty-five.”
The officer set the papers down carefully.
Some documents looked heavier once someone understood whose childhood had been folded inside them.