Chapter 8 - Colin Gives Back the GiftThe electronic racing system remained in Colin’s room.
He stopped using it.
At first, Daniel thought he had lost interest.
Then one Saturday morning, Colin carried the box downstairs.
Gloria had come to collect personal documents.
She saw him struggling with it.
“What are you doing?”
Colin put the box at her feet.
“You can have it back.”
Gloria stared.
“What?”
“I don’t want it.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“You gave it to me because Maisie didn’t get one.”
“That is not why.”
Colin looked toward Maisie.
She stood in the hallway.
“Yes, it is.”
Gloria crouched.
“Colin, listen to me. You are special.”
“So is Maisie.”
“Of course.”
“Then why didn’t she get anything?”
Gloria exhaled.
“Children do not receive exactly the same things.”
“We’re twins.”
“That doesn’t mean your lives will be identical.”
Colin frowned.
“Grandpa’s letter said equal doesn’t mean same.”
Gloria went rigid.
Daniel watched from the staircase.
Colin continued:
“He said nobody gets smaller.”
Gloria looked at Daniel.
“You read that letter to them?”
“Yes.”
“It was meant for you.”
“It was about them.”
Gloria stood.
“You are involving children in adult conflict.”
Daniel descended the stairs.
“No. You involved them the moment you turned their birthday into a hierarchy.”
Gloria pointed toward the racing system.
“That gift had nothing to do with the trust.”
“It had everything to do with the same belief.”
Colin pushed the box closer.
“Take it.”
Gloria looked genuinely hurt.
Daniel saw it.
For all her cruelty, Gloria loved Colin.
But she loved him through a role.
He was the chosen grandson.
The future.
The continuation.
Now Colin was rejecting the crown.
“I picked that because you begged for it,” Gloria said.
“I know.”
“Then keep it.”
“No.”
Maisie stepped forward.
“You can keep it, Colin.”
He shook his head.
“I don’t like it anymore.”
“Because of me?”
“Because everybody laughed and you were alone.”
The twins looked at each other.
Maisie’s eyes filled.
Colin whispered:
“I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
“I’m sorry.”
Maisie hugged him.
Gloria watched.
Something complicated crossed her face.
Sadness.
Jealousy.
Perhaps even recognition.
But it vanished quickly.
“You’re teaching him guilt,” she told Rebecca.
Rebecca replied:
“No. He learned empathy.”
Gloria picked up her documents.
She left the gift where it was.
“Do whatever you want with it.”
After she left, Colin looked at Daniel.
“Can we sell it?”
“Why?”
“Give Maisie the money.”
Maisie shook her head.
“I don’t want your money.”
Colin frowned.
“What do you want?”
She thought for a moment.
“I want us both to pick something.”
Daniel smiled.
“That we can do.”
Maisie immediately looked at him.
“Not today.”
His smile faded.
Of course.
She still remembered.
A present bought later could not rewrite the birthday.
“I understand.”
Maisie nodded.
Daniel took the racing system and eventually returned it to the retailer.
He placed the refund in a temporary account untouched by Gloria.
Not for Maisie.
Not for Colin.
For a future shared experience the twins would choose together.
Meanwhile, the court hearing on Gloria’s trusteeship approached.
Her attorney argued that the disputed transfers were reasonable exercises of trustee discretion.
Evelyn produced Arthur’s language.
Equal treatment.
No sex-based preference.
Independent approval required.
Then she produced Daniel’s old authorization.
He had signed it.
Gloria’s lawyer seized on that immediately.
“Mr. Whitmore approved the reallocation.”
Daniel testified.
“Yes.”
“So Mrs. Whitmore did not act alone.”
“No.”
“Are you blaming your mother now because your wife is angry?”
“No.”
“Then why did you sign?”
Daniel looked at the judge.
“Because I was weak.”
Gloria stared at him.
Her lawyer paused.
Daniel continued.
“I trusted my mother more than I read the document. I cared more about saving my company than asking whose money was being used.”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
Daniel did not excuse himself.
“I failed my daughter too.”
The honesty changed the room.
Gloria’s defense depended partly on pretending everyone had knowingly agreed.
Daniel refused to pretend.
The judge ordered an independent forensic accounting and temporarily restricted Gloria from making further trust transfers without outside approval.
Not full removal.
Not yet.
But control had shifted.
Outside court, Gloria confronted Daniel.
“You humiliated yourself.”
Daniel nodded.
“I told the truth.”
“You made yourself look incompetent.”
“I was.”
“Your father would never have done that.”
Daniel looked at her.
“No.”
Then he thought of Arthur’s letter.
“Maybe that’s why he left me instructions.”
Gloria’s face hardened.
Before she could answer, Evelyn approached.
“The accountant found something else.”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
“A property purchase.”
“Whose?”
Evelyn looked toward Gloria.
“Seven years ago, shortly before the twins were born, Arthur purchased a smaller house in his own name.”
Daniel frowned.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“He transferred it into the twins’ trust.”
Rebecca stared.
“Both twins?”
“Equal beneficiaries.”
Daniel looked at Gloria.
She said nothing.
Evelyn continued:
“The property has been rented for years.”
“Where did the rental income go?” Rebecca asked.
May you like
Evelyn’s expression answered before she spoke.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out.”
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