PART 8 — Eleven Days Before the Yacht Payment Came Due
Mara and Peter spent the weekend sorting figures while I tried to keep Noah’s life recognizable. We went to his soccer game on Saturday. He played half a match, then asked to sit beside me because his chest felt tight. His breathing was normal, but I did not dismiss what he felt. We watched the rest together from the bench.
On Sunday, I told him I had arranged a visit with a counselor who worked with children after frightening medical events. He asked whether that meant I thought something was wrong with him. “It means what happened was frightening,” I said. “You can have someone besides me to talk to.” He agreed to try one appointment if I stayed nearby.
Peter’s forecast arrived Monday. Without payments to Starline, Harbor Point could meet payroll and essential supplier bills for the next several weeks. It still needed a longer plan to deal with old debt and replace worn equipment. If Grant used company cash to rescue the yacht, that narrow breathing room would disappear. The numbers made our next request urgent.
Mara asked Grant and Celia to agree in writing that Harbor Point would make no further payments to Starline while an independent accountant reviewed them. She also asked Starline’s lender for a current payoff figure, with Celia’s consent. Grant refused the first request and did not answer the second. Mara prepared an application for temporary court orders protecting company assets.
Before she filed it, Ruth called. Grant had summoned the staff and told them my actions could force layoffs. Several employees had asked Ruth whether they should seek other work. I went to the workshop with Mara that afternoon, after arranging with Grant’s lawyer to meet him there. I wanted the employees to hear a plan grounded in the accounts, not a promise I could not keep.
Grant stood by the front counter when we arrived. He had removed the wall photograph of Dad, leaving a pale rectangle against the paint. I asked where it was. “In my office,” he said. Mara kept us focused on the payment restrictions, and Peter joined by phone to explain the cash forecast to both owners. Grant listened without interrupting until Peter mentioned selling the yacht.
“You’ve never had to sell anything you built,” Grant said to me. He had worked longer hours at Harbor Point than I had; that was true. But the boat was not the workshop, and his employees had built its reputation beside him. I asked whether he had told them Starline belonged to Celia. He looked toward the open office door before answering. “They know Celia helps us.”
Ruth brought in the next month’s supplier list. Grant studied it while Peter explained which bills the company could pay if Starline payments stopped. I saw a change in him then, brief but real. He asked two practical questions about the vans. For ten minutes, we discussed the business Dad had left us. Then Celia arrived and asked to speak with him privately.
They shut his office door. Through the glass, I saw Celia point toward the marina on a map pinned to his wall. Grant shook his head. When they came out, he withdrew his tentative agreement and said all further communication should go through counsel. Mara filed the application that evening. I went home knowing a judge would soon read how my brother had used the company.
Noah’s counselor had a cancellation the next morning. Afterward, he said they had talked about boats and the sound the ambulance made when its doors closed. He did not want to tell me everything. I was glad he felt he could keep some of the conversation for himself. At home, he put Grandpa’s photograph on his bookshelf.
The police called later that day. They had obtained footage from a security camera mounted outside the marina office. It showed Celia carrying a small jar onto the yacht before we arrived. The camera could not see inside the galley. The officer said she was still reviewing statements and test results with the prosecutor. I wrote down what she told me and thanked her.
A hearing on the company’s finances was set for Thursday. Celia’s payment deadline fell the following week. Mara said the court might order records preserved and restrict unusual transfers while the dispute was reviewed. It could not make Harbor Point profitable. That work would require Grant to cooperate, or someone else to take responsibility for the books.
The evening before the hearing, Luis came to my door with his wife. He asked first how Noah was doing. Then he said Grant had told him to claim he never heard me ask about the dressing. Luis had refused. He was willing to give a statement about what he had witnessed on the yacht, including Grant’s claim that Noah was faking.
I thanked him, though I was sorry his job had been placed in that position. Luis said he had already found work at another marina. Before he left, he handed me a copy of the note Noah had sent. He kept the original in his locker. On the drawing, Noah had written a sentence I had missed: Thank you for turning us around when the grown-ups argued.
END PART 8
