Chapter 5 - THE CURRENT OWNERS OF THE LIE
Mercer & Reed was no longer a family department store.
It had become a national luxury brand valued at nearly two billion dollars.
Henry Mercer’s descendants controlled thirty percent.
Samuel Reed’s descendants controlled another twenty-eight.
The remaining shares belonged to investors and employees.
If Mom’s original agreement was valid, she had been entitled to fifteen percent before decades of expansion.
The amount today could be enormous.
That was not the first thing she asked about.
“What happened to the sewing staff?”
Rebecca looked surprised.
“What do you mean?”
“When the Midnight Collection succeeded, Henry promised profit sharing.”
“Did the workers receive it?”
The answer came from old payroll records.
No.
The seamstresses received small holiday bonuses.
Henry and Samuel awarded themselves ownership.
Mom had planned to use part of her shares to create a worker cooperative.
The draft proposal appeared in her old notebook.
It gave every employee who produced the collection a percentage of royalties.
The women who stitched the gowns had been erased beside her.
Ava began searching local archives.
She found eleven surviving workers.
Most were in their seventies and eighties.
One was ninety-three.
Their stories matched.
Eleanor designed the gowns.
Eleanor taught them the signature seams.
Eleanor negotiated better wages.
Eleanor argued that the collection belonged to the hands that built it.
Then came the fire.
Management said Eleanor confessed privately.
Employees were warned that supporting her could cost them their jobs.
Several remained silent because they had children.
One woman, Doris Bell, saved a letter.
Henry Mercer had written:
Once Eleanor is gone, the ownership issue disappears.
Doris kept the letter inside a cookbook for forty years.
When she handed it to Rebecca, her hands shook.
“I should have spoken sooner.”
Mom touched her wrist.
“You were feeding four children.”
“So were you.”
Neither woman asked the other for forgiveness.
They sat together with the truth.
Mercer & Reed responded by hiring one of the largest defense firms in the country.
Celeste Mercer became the public face of the company.
She gave an interview inside the original flagship store.
“My grandfather was a visionary.”
“It is painful to see his legacy attacked by incomplete memories and opportunistic litigation.”
I watched beside Mom.
“Do you want me to turn it off?”
“No.”
Celeste continued.
“Mrs. Morrow was compensated generously for her work.”
Rebecca checked the settlement.
Mom received thirty thousand dollars.
After attorney fees and taxes, less than eighteen thousand remained.
It paid rent, groceries, and my school expenses for two years.
The company made more than twenty million from the Midnight Collection during the same period.
May you like
Mom stared at Celeste’s face on the screen.
“She looks like Henry when she lies.”
