We talked for five hours.
At one point she asked, “Do you want my portion of the trust?”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“I don’t need it.”
“Neither do I.”
She smiled.
“Then what do we do with it?”
I thought about Patricia’s scholarship idea.
About Thomas Hale’s designs.
About Lucas wanting affordable housing.
About Daniel needing to build something that belonged to his own choices.
An idea appeared so quickly I almost laughed.
“What if we stop dividing everything?”
Anna tilted her head.
“What do you mean?”
“What if we build something?”
Six months later, the Bennett-Hale Foundation was born.
Not a monument.
Not a vanity project.
A housing and education nonprofit.
Anna handled urban planning.
I handled design.
Lucas led architecture.
Daniel managed construction.
Patricia administered the scholarship program.
And, after considerable debate, Vanessa joined the communications team.
I nearly vetoed that last one.
Emily convinced me otherwise.
