Chương 4
Neither did I.
Margaret continued.
“Vanessa shall become the presumptive beneficiary of the remaining trust assets after satisfaction of all specific bequests, tax obligations, administrative expenses, and the five-million-dollar distribution reserved for Curtis.”
The conference room seemed to tilt.
I put my hand flat against the table.
“That can’t be right.”
Curtis turned toward me so fast the movement startled me.
“What did you say?”
I looked at Margaret.
“That can’t be what Arthur meant.”
“It is.”
“No.”
“Vanessa.”
“He wouldn’t leave me that.”
Margaret’s expression softened again.
“He did not leave you seventy-five million dollars in cash.”
“I know, but you know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
She folded her hands over the document.
“The estate’s current estimated gross value is approximately seventy-five million.”
Curtis gave a short, disbelieving sound.
Margaret ignored him.
“After liabilities, charitable gifts, taxes where applicable, and administrative costs, the trust will hold substantially less than the headline figure.”
“How much less?”
Curtis’s voice came out flat.
The accountant answered for the first time.
“We are still valuing several commercial properties and partnership interests.”
Curtis looked at her.
“A number.”
“I’m not giving you a number that may be wrong.”
“Ballpark.”
“Not today.”
He laughed once.
It was an ugly sound.
“So she gets everything because I filed for divorce?”
Margaret looked at him.
“You did more than file.”
“What does that mean?”
“The clause defines several triggering actions.”
“I heard them.”
“Then you heard removal from the marital residence and material abandonment of financial support.”
Curtis’s face flushed.
“That house is mine.”
“It belonged to your father.”
“He let us live there.”
“Yes.”
“And now it comes to me.”
“No.”
Curtis blinked.
Margaret glanced down again.
“The residence is owned by the Bellamy Family Trust.”
He stared at her.
“You said personal effects came to me.”
“A house is not a personal effect.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I know exactly what the will says.”
Curtis stepped away from the chair.
He paced once toward the windows and back.
“So what happens now?”
Margaret closed the will.
“Now the trustee determines whether the condition was triggered.”
“You just said it was.”
“I said the triggering event occurred.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The determination must be formally documented.”
“And who does that?”
“I do.”
Curtis stared at her for several seconds.
Then something subtle changed in his expression.
The anger receded.
His shoulders loosened.
His voice dropped.
“Margaret.”
I had heard that tone before.
He used it with hotel managers, bankers, junior employees, anyone he believed might be persuaded if he sounded reasonable enough.
“Everybody’s emotional right now.”
Margaret said nothing.
“My father died.”
“Yes.”
“I made some decisions quickly.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe I overreacted.”
She waited.
Curtis gestured toward me.
“Vanessa and I have had problems for years.”
My head lifted.
That was new.
He kept going.
“Private problems.”
“Curtis.”
He ignored me.
“We weren’t happy.”
I stared at him.
Three weeks earlier, he had told me I no longer fit the life he intended to live.
Now he was constructing a history that had never existed because he needed one.
“We were married,” he said.
“Marriage is complicated.”
“You never told me we had problems.”
He finally looked at me.
“You didn’t want to hear it.”
“That isn’t true.”
“You always made everything about Dad.”
For a second, I could not speak.
Then I laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
The sound escaped me before I could stop it.
Curtis flinched.
“You were never home,” I said.
“I was working.”
“You were golfing.”
“That was business.”
“You were in Miami for four days while your father was hospitalized.”
“I had meetings.”
“You posted pictures from a yacht.”
The younger attorney coughed into his fist.
Curtis’s face darkened.
“Do you really want to do this here?”
“No.”
I sat back.
“I don’t want to do any of this.”
Margaret looked between us.
“This meeting is not a marital hearing.”
“Good,” Curtis said.
“Then let’s keep it legal.”
“It is legal.”
He returned to his chair but did not sit.
“What if Vanessa withdraws the divorce?”
I looked at him.
Margaret did too.
“The divorce petition was filed by you.”
“What if I withdraw it?”
“That does not erase prior conduct.”
“What if we reconcile?”
My stomach tightened.
There it was.
Not regret.
Not apology.
A strategy.
Margaret leaned back slightly.
“The clause does provide a cure period under limited circumstances.”
Curtis became still.
“What circumstances?”
“If both spouses voluntarily resume the marriage in good faith before the trustee’s final determination, and if the trustee finds that the reconciliation is genuine rather than financially motivated, the triggering event may be cured.”
Curtis’s eyes moved to me.
I saw the panic behind them sharpen into hope.
He sat down slowly.
“How long is the cure period?”
“Sixty days from formal notice.”
“And formal notice is today?”
“Yes.”
He nodded once.
Then again.
Like a man organizing numbers in his head.
“Fine.”
Margaret’s expression cooled.
“There is nothing fine about it.”
“No, I mean I understand.”
“I’m not sure you do.”
“I do.”
He turned toward me.
“Vanessa.”
I felt my body stiffen before he said anything else.
“We should talk privately.”
“No.”
His eyebrows rose.
“Come on.”
“No.”
“Don’t do this.”
I almost smiled at the absurdity of those three words.
“Don’t do what?”
“Make a permanent decision because you’re angry.”
I stared at him.
Three weeks ago, he had watched security escort me into the rain.
Now my anger was apparently the dangerous thing in the room.
“You threw me out of our home.”
“I was upset.”
“You packed my clothes.”
“I had them packed.”
“That improves it?”
“I’m saying it wasn’t exactly planned.”
“Curtis, there were suitcases waiting by the door.”
He looked irritated by the detail.
“I had been thinking about it.”
“For how long?”
He glanced at Margaret.
“That’s between us.”
“You just told this room we’d had problems for years.”
His jaw tightened.
Margaret interrupted.
May you like
“Anything said in this meeting is being documented.”
Curtis looked at her.
