They Said I Was Adopted, but I Was Always the Real Daughter novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: Signing Power
The echo of my mother's scream was still hanging under the glass when my grandmother stood up.
She sat at table two in her black hat.
She took her cane in one hand and her purse in the other.
She walked down the aisle without hurrying.
Two hundred people made a path for her without being asked.
She took the microphone from Paulina as gently as she might have taken a cup from a sleeping child.
"I'm Rosalba Cárdenas," she said. "I'm seventy-nine, and I'm Humberto's mother."
"Most of you know me from forty years ago, when I ran the till. Some of you owe me money."
There was a small, nervous laugh.
"I own fifty-one percent of these stores," my grandmother said. "I have never once told you so."
"Rosalba," my mother said, "this isn't the place."
"It's exactly the place. You have a stage and a banner, and a very good seating chart."
Abuela turned back to the hall.
"For seventeen years Graciela has signed for these stores. She did it because I let her. I let her because I was in Saltillo, being told I was confusing the children."
"As of tonight, she signs nothing."
A murmur swept the tables.
"Humberto and I sign. On Monday at nine, the partners come to my table, and we will decide the rest together."
"You can't," my mother said. Her voice had gone thin. "I built this company. I made it what it is."
"You managed it," said my grandmother. "My husband built it, with a shelf of hammers, and you may thank him on your way out."
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