But one cabinet door stood ajar, several shelves inside empty. I searched the drawers — tax documents, old letters, company reports — and in the bottom drawer found a cream envelope with my name in my father’s handwriting.

SOPHIA — PERSONAL. Sealed. Whatever was inside, he had meant me to find it.

The first page was a letter dated seven months earlier — one month before I met Daniel.

Sophia, there are decisions I should have discussed with you sooner. Bennett Marine is financially stable, but our voting structure is not. After your mother died, several shares moved into trusts whose conditions are more complicated than I understood.

If anything happens to me, do not sign away your voting rights, even temporarily. Do not allow anyone to persuade you that control and ownership are the same thing.

They are not. Most importantly, there is a provision in your mother’s trust that activates upon your marriage. I did not create it, and I have been trying to amend it.