The negotiations did not end immediately. Harlon resisted any public correction to the transfer record, arguing that it would damage his reputation and the other businesses associated with his name. Willa told Callum she was not asking for a public humiliation; she was asking for the property record to say what the evidence supported. If the record remained misleading, every future customer, lender, and employee would inherit the same uncertainty. Callum agreed that the correction needed to be enforceable, not merely promised in a private letter.
By the third week of March, the parties had a revised consent framework. The court would be asked to set aside the disputed ownership change and approve a corrected arrangement, with defined accounting steps and a schedule for implementation. Willa understood that a court-approved resolution would not mean a judge had pronounced on every private intention, or that she had been given back all the months she had lost. It would mean the business was no longer left under an amendment the evidence could not support and that she had a route to recover what her father intended to preserve.
The hearing took place on a cold Thursday morning. Reese drove her to Sudbury and waited outside with a cup of coffee while she and Callum went through the final documents. Willa wore a simple dark jacket she had bought with her own wages and carried the folder in a leather satchel borrowed from Fig. She had been to lawyers' offices before and come away with nothing but polite refusals. This time she walked into a room where her name appeared on the official list of matters to be heard, and she knew exactly why she was there.
The judge reviewed the proposed order, asked about the disclosure and independent advice each party had received, and required several clarifications before accepting the terms. Harlon was present with his lawyers but did not address Willa. She could see him near the far side of the room, his expression familiar and unreadable. For a moment she felt the old fear, the feeling that because he spoke with confidence and wore an expensive suit he might somehow be permitted to decide the meaning of her father's life.
Then the judge asked a question about one of the ownership clauses, and Callum answered from the documents. The answer did not depend on Harlon's influence or Willa's fear. It depended on the wording in the record and the agreement the parties had submitted. Willa understood, suddenly, that this was the first room in which neither of them could simply declare the dispute finished because they wanted it to be.
The court approved the resolution and directed that the necessary documents be completed under the supervised timetable. When the hearing ended, Callum touched the closed folder and turned to her. "The order is in place," he said. "You have the judgment you came for. There is still administrative work before the transfer is fully completed, but the central question is settled."