Chapter 4 - The Signature I Had Forgotten
I flew back to Richmond with Jason instead of beginning our honeymoon.
The trip to Italy was canceled. Some deposits were refundable. Others were not.
I did not care.
Andrea met us at her office near Shockoe Slip and reviewed the documents I could find.
Six years earlier, Robert had reorganized Whitmore Industries after buying out his former partner.
He gave Luke ten percent.
He gave me ten percent.
At the time I was working as a speech-language pathologist in Alexandria and wanted nothing to do with the business.
“You don’t have to work here,” Dad had said. “This just keeps the company in the family.”
I signed.
I received small annual distributions and assumed that was the end of my involvement.
It was not.
My ownership interest meant any investigation into the company could affect me financially, even if I had not participated in management.
Andrea told me to retain separate corporate counsel.
That cost another retainer.
Jason and I had already lost thousands canceling the wedding and honeymoon. Now the emergency fund my parents wanted was financing lawyers because of their conduct.
I authorized the attorneys to notify the retirement-plan administrator that I disputed any representation that I had agreed to contribute $75,000.
That afternoon, Robert called from an unfamiliar number.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“I know you tried to force me to transfer money.”
“To save forty-two jobs.”
“You said it was for the wedding.”
“Because you wouldn’t understand the business.”
“You never gave me the chance.”
His voice hardened.
“Your mother and I built the life that let you become whatever you wanted. You took the education, the condo help, the wedding. Now everyone needs you once, and you run to police.”
That argument still had power over me.
My parents had paid part of my graduate-school tuition.
Robert had given me $20,000 toward my first condo.
Diane had planned most of the wedding.
Family generosity had always arrived with invisible accounting.
Andrea later called with the first corporate records.
The retirement trust had received several large transfers during the year.
Each one came shortly after Robert borrowed money personally from a family member.
May you like
The $75,000 request was not an isolated emergency.
It was part of a pattern.
