Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Pop: Chapter 22a

    "Remember how bad Dad was after you mother and Candi died, recovering from the transplant and other cancer treatments."
    "Yeah, it was all but a miracle that he made it." Sam replies.
    "Well, he wasn't able to take care of all the arrangements that had to happen after they died.  He left most of that up to his legal team.  For instance, putting me into temporary guardianship over you."
    "I know."
    "Well, Dad also had to deal with you mom's clinic.  Dad was in no way to handle it, even when he was well.  So, the legal team starting making plans to sell the clinic to an interested buyer who would keep it open.  The entailed going over the clinic's records, including finances.  Dad's accounting team handled those, and they found something odd."
    "What did they find?: Sam asks, some trepidation slipping into his voice.
    "About ten months before your mother died, she withdrew about sixty-thousand dollars from her and Dad's joint account.  More than once over week's time.  She deposited the money into one of the clinic's sub-accounts.  Five weeks or so later, she returned the money to the joint account, but none of the interest.   Dad couldn't remember her mentioning that the clinic needed any emergency funding.  Some of the former employees were asked about the money, too.  Not many had stayed in the area after the clinic was temporarily closed.  None knew about the transfer or any reason for one.  
    "The primary theory was that an employee had performed the transfer, hoping to ultimately steal the money from the account.  Your mother found out and returned the money, without notifying authorities about the intended theft.  Tax forms showed everything about the transfer, and no one had bothered to flag the incident.  With your mother dead, everyone thought the case was closed.  However, Dad still felt that something was off.  He told me about it, and I immediately realized what the problem was when he told me about when she returned the money."
    "Why was that important?" Sam asks again.
    "She returned the money a few days after Dad got his cancer diagnosis.  Now, part of this might be projecting about my own mother, but your mom could have been planning to divorce Dad and squirreling away money was part of it."
    "NO!  Mom wouldn't have done that.  Why would she put the money back then, if she wanted a divorce?" Sam yells.
    "This is only a possible theory, Sam.  However, it does fit.  If your mom divorced Dad, she would have only gotten less than half the total amount of Dad's assets.  Enough would have been held up in trusts for you and Candi, as well as various other funds, that she would have needed some extra money to continue living in the lifestyle she was accustomed to.  Dad lets accountants handle everything.  He wouldn't have noticed that you mom would have been doing something wrong, and the accountants wouldn't have caught it either until after the fact."
    I pause a second until Sam nods for me to continue.
    "However, if Dad had died while they were married, then she would have access to almost everything. The only funds that she wouldn't control would be our sister's trust fund, but Candi would almost definitely let your mom have some access to that, especially if she hadn't been found."
    "But what about my shares, or yours?" Sam asks.
    "I was missing.  Your mom could've declared me dead or disinherited for a lack of contact.  She would have had control of my part.  As for you, your were a minor.  She would control your trust until you turned twenty-one, the same way my grandmother denied me access to my funds until she died just before I found out about them.  Furthermore, it would have been possible for her to have you disinherited as well, since you were born via surrogate.  Since you weren't even her natural child to begin with, she might have even thrown you out when you turned eighteen, but that is the worst-case scenario. Still, she had done such things before."
    "What things?  Are you telling me that mom ..."
    I interrupt Sam before he completes his thought.
    "Your mother was a senior nurse at the hospital where our grandfather was staying at after his first heart attack.  Some of her colleagues at the time suggest she was planning on cozying up to him in an effort to possibly marry him and get his money.  She only went after Dad when she realized grandfather wasn't the kind of man to remarry on a whim.  To accomplish that, she tricked the investigators looking for me after my mother went one the lam into stopping the search.  She made them think the notice came from grandpa just before he died.  She may have even got 'closer' to one of the detectives, if you catch my drift.  So, a few months after grandpa died, she married Dad.  My mother had her divorce fast-tracked, so nothing stopped your mother from getting the rich lifestyle she craved."
    "I can't believe this is happening,"Sam moans.
    "Sam, not all of this can be proven.  Your mother might not have been a gold digger.  She could have just took an opportunity when she saw it, and most everything else was a coincidence.  Still, Dad didn't want the happier memories despoiled by staying in the old house.  He needed to leave, as he had no more ties to the place once you start college.'
    "I would if I have gotten into Dad's university.  I still might be able to.  If the memories attached to him were the reason, we could have moved to allow me to stay in the area."
    "No.  You would never have been allowed to enroll there.  Ever."
    Time for the next shoe to drop.
    At least Burton males are known for their 'third leg' to let that happen.

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Pop: Chapter 23b

    Of course, we called Dad immediately.  He didn't sound too concerned over the phone, but with him, one can never be that sure.  He w...