Max Devore and Mattie Devore’s relationship

Max Devore and Mattie Devore’s relationship is shaped by a persistent struggle over family access and control. Max first tries to use money to prevent Mattie from marrying his son, Lance; after Lance’s death, he gains limited access to Kyra, his granddaughter, but Mattie’s concern for the child eventually leads her to end the visits. Their connection briefly appears capable of a more humane beginning at Lance’s funeral, yet Max’s later threats and the unequal resources brought to bear in the custody dispute expose how fragile that opening was.

A Marriage Max Tried to Prevent

In August 1994, after Lance told Max that he and Mattie planned to marry in mid-September, Max called Mattie with an offer of $100,000. A week later, he raised it to $200,000. The money was conditional: Mattie was to leave Lance and relocate without giving a forwarding address. She initially kept the offers to herself, but after the second, she told Lance. He responded by confronting his father and insisting that he would marry Mattie whether Max approved or not.

Max’s attempts did not stop with the direct offers. About ten days before the wedding, Dickie Osgood visited Mattie and instructed her to call a number in Delaware. The details of that call are not given here, but its timing extends Max’s campaign beyond his own telephone conversations and into the period just before the marriage. Mattie later described both cash offers as having come directly from Max, made when Lance was not present.

A Cautious Opening After Lance’s Death

When Max came east for Lance’s funeral, he asked to see Kyra. Mattie recalls that the two of them did not embrace or reconcile, but that Max treated her decently, contrary to her expectations. He offered her a stipend, which she refused because she worried that accepting money could have legal consequences. The refusal reflects her continuing caution even as she made room for him to meet his granddaughter.

At the funeral home, Mattie saw Max tired and emotionally vulnerable. As Kyra approached him, the child and Max found an easy point of contact: he offered her a chocolate, and she responded warmly. Max reached for Mattie’s hand and asked not to be shut out; Mattie said she would not shut him out unless he gave her reason to. The scene offers a temporary alternative to their earlier hostility, but it does not erase Max’s attempts to buy Mattie’s departure or the rupture between father and son.

Grandfatherly Access and Mattie’s Doubts

For a time, Mattie allowed Kyra to visit Max, usually once or twice a week and sometimes overnight. She understood the relationship as a way for Kyra to maintain her only blood connection to her deceased father, and wanted the child to have the ordinary pleasure of a grandparent. Mattie also admits that she had some thought of a possible future benefit for Kyra, but says it was not her main reason for permitting the visits. She had refused Max’s money and remained wary of the history between them.

The arrangement changed as Kyra’s feelings about Max shifted. Mattie says Kyra remained fond of Rogette Whitmore but grew nervous around Max, in a way she could not explain. Mattie asked whether he had touched the child in a way that made her uncomfortable; Kyra said no, and Mattie believed her. Even so, Mattie suspected that something Max said or did had unsettled her granddaughter. The account leaves the cause uncertain: Mattie’s concern is clear, but the evidence presented does not establish what, if anything, Max did.

By spring, Mattie was afraid for Kyra, and by June she could no longer tolerate the visits. She stopped them, despite Kyra’s intermittent anger. The decision marked a decisive change: Mattie had once treated access to Max as a potential family good, but came to see the child’s unease as more important than maintaining that connection.

Custody Conflict and Unequal Influence

Max reacted to the end of visits with fury. According to Mattie, his calls began by asking what was wrong and then turned into threats to take Kyra from her. He warned that Mattie would be portrayed publicly as an unfit mother and said she had no chance unless she allowed him to see his granddaughter again. Mattie also describes pressure from Dickie Osgood and other local people, including Lance’s friend Richie Lattimore, who accused her of failing Lance’s memory.

The conflict takes place within a formal court process as well as a local network of influence. Mike Noonan is subpoenaed to give a deposition concerning Kyra’s well-being before Elmer Durgin, the court-appointed guardian ad litem. Durgin’s role is to advise the court about the child’s interests; although a judge is not required to follow his advice, John Storrow explains that judges usually do. Mattie, for her part, regards Durgin as aligned with Max and links him to Osgood, Max’s real-estate associate. Her accusation is her own account of the relationship, not an independently established finding in these passages.

The imbalance is not limited to the courtroom. Mike tells Mattie that Max can afford as many lawyers as he wants, along with sympathetic witnesses, while she cannot expect the court to provide comparable support. The town’s pressure also matters: Bill Dean warns Mike that residents are uneasy about his involvement with Mattie and that angering Max could affect others on the TR who already struggle financially. Bill frames the community as interdependent, with one person’s conflict disturbing everyone’s precarious peace. Mike rejects the implication that he should stand aside and let Max take Kyra without a fight.

Max’s influence is also connected to Mattie’s employment. When Lindy Briggs dismisses Mattie from the Four Lakes Consolidated Library under the description of belt-tightening, Mike suspects that Max’s longstanding support for the library may be used as leverage. The narrative presents this as Mike’s inference rather than a confirmed instruction from Max. Still, the loss makes tangible how the custody struggle can reach beyond family visits and legal filings into Mattie’s ability to support herself.

The Relationship’s Lasting Shape

Mattie’s position combines a willingness to allow a relationship between Kyra and her grandfather with a refusal to accept Max’s terms. She initially accepts his request to see Kyra after Lance’s funeral, later allows recurring visits, and values the child’s connection to her father’s family. But she refuses a stipend, rejects the pressure to restore access once Kyra becomes uneasy, and accepts Mike’s offer to connect her with John Storrow for legal help. The relationship therefore moves not from simple rejection to reconciliation, but from cautious accommodation to a sharper boundary drawn around Kyra’s welfare.

The contrast between Max’s plea at the funeral and his later custody threats defines the instability of the bond. His appeal not to be shut out briefly elicits Mattie’s compassion; afterward, he treats the cutoff in access as grounds for taking the child from her. The custody dispute turns a family relationship into a contest in which money, local loyalties, legal procedure, and Mattie’s judgment of Kyra’s needs all bear on who can remain part of the child’s life. After Mattie dies, Mike describes Kyra as having passed through two foster homes, while Mattie’s aunt shows little interest in taking her. That later circumstance underscores the lasting consequences of a conflict in which Max’s access to Kyra had become inseparable from the wider question of who would care for her.