The Love Of Money - Episode 186
30-07-25 (11:07)
"And she isn't interested in meeting? Maybe I can find
some way of earning her trust."
"Unlikely. Though you're technically family, she sees you
as more of a usurper than anything. Your inheritance of
everything bypasses Colin's offspring, including her."
"Still... can you see if you can arrange something? I
know I'm standing between her and billions of dollars,
and I can't blame her for being mad at me, but I'd like
to try."
I'll see what I can do," Chandler said, but his tone didn't
sound very confident.
Kelly Maddox was also on the board list. Apparently,
she'd been allowed to keep the shares she had
received while working for my grandfather, giving her
voting rights, but since she only owned three percent, it
wasn't much power. I couldn't help but wonder what
she was playing at or why so many people had faith in
her when the big-bad Gerrard patriarch had so little
faith in her near the end of their relationship.
"Hey," I said. "Do you have a picture of Kelly?"
"I believe so," Chandler said, pulling out his phone and
scrolling through it. He slid his phone to me face up, and
I saw an image of a man in her middle to late thirties.
She had short, charcoal, wavy hair and wore glasses.
Her lips were painted wine red, and her fingernails
were lacquered to match. Her smile was minimal,
giving me the impression she was being forced to do it
more than anything else. She had a severe look but
was undoubtedly hot, she reminded me of Regina-one
of the three candidates for Erin's position.
This was good. Now, my enemy had a face and a
name, which was always helpful in making them seem
less intimidating. Unfortunately, it also quashed the
suspicion that she had been trying to get information
from me at the warehouse. Damn. I would have bet a
million dollars on that one.
"Thanks," I said and pushed the phone back to him. I
looked down at Chandler's handout and said, "What is
Brantwood Holdings, and why do they own fifteen
percent of the company?"
"It's a firm that acts as a single entity to maintain
voting rights. They hold their own meetings in advance
and act in the interest of their clients."
"And they're firmly behind Maddox?" Helen asked.
"I'm afraid so," Chandler said. "Trying to get them to
change their vote is next to impossible. For one thing, it
would require convincing too many people. Second,
they keep their client list private. I wouldn't know
where' to begin if I thought there was a chance of
convincing them."
Damn. That was a shame. There was only one other
besides me that had that many shares.
"Who's Michael Ross?" asked.
"He represents the twins. Your half-siblings. They never
show up to these things and have a lawyer on retainer
to represent them in all matters pertaining to
VistaVision. It's essentially been that way since they
were estranged by their grandfather. I would honestly
love to have a face-to-face with them, but they haven't
returned any of my calls. As your grandfather put it,
they're... spoiled."
I hadn't even gotten over the fact that I'd had a
wealthy father and that my grandfather had recently
died and left me with billions upon billions. Now, I had
to face the fact that I had family out there who hated
me before I even knew they existed. I wanted to know
what it would take to get in touch with then. Surely,
Nina could be reasoned with; maybe she was a
proverbial foot in the door to meeting the rest of the
family. It hardly seemed fair that they all saw me as
persona non-grata before getting to know me. Of
course, it was hardly fair that inherited more money
than I could ever spend either.
I looked at my phone and noticed the time. We'd been
here for ten hours.
"It's getting late," I said, looking around the room at
partially glazed eyes and plates emptied of food an
hour ago. "Chandler, if you can secure a meeting with
Wayne and Hiro before Monday, I'd be happy to meet
with them and do whatever can to explain that we
want their trust."
"It might require meeting with them separately, given
the time constraints, but I'll see what I can do," he said
as he gathered his stuff. "And I'll let you know if Nina
allows me to contact her. However, I wouldn't hold my
breath if I were you."
"I'll see Chandler out. I have a couple of other small
matters to cover with him," Helen sald
"Sounds good," I said and wished Chandler good luck
before they left, leaving me alone with Erin, who was
furiously typing away on her phone. She muttered
something.
"What?" I asked. She had seemed distracted throughout
the meeting and now seemed a little flustered. It was
understandable. I had difficulty paying attention every
moment, but Erin always seemed impervious to
distraction unless she intended it and had always
seemed unflappable.
"Oh, nothing," she said. "I've just been working on this
thing together for tomorrow night."
"Oh," I said, suddenly understanding why she seemed
distracted. "I didn't think-"
"It's no problem. I'm just stretched a little thin today. I
have someone to do a lot of the heavy lifting on short
notice. I am looking forward to you getting a household
manager, though. It'll make my job a lot easier."
"Where are we on that?" asked.
"It's an important position, so I'm being very
***********ive, Erin said. "I'll have a list of final
candidates for you to go over next week."
"Sure," said. "Just say the word."
After leaving Erin to take care of the mountain of work
I'd given her, I had a few more phone calls to return. I
spent some time in my study talking to Natalie, who
was relieved to hear from me. She seened a little upset
that she had been stone-walled by Helen when she
asked for me when I didn't show up on Monday, but I
guess I saw it from Helen's point of view. The last thing
any of us needed was for it to become public
knowledge that I'd been kidnapped. That could
seriously upset our plans for VistaVision just before our
meeting, and while I trusted Natalie implicitly, Helen
didn't. Whether I liked it or not, Natalie wasn't in my
inner circle.
I tried to smooth things over with her by telling her a
truncated version of the kidnapping story and that
Helen had been acting under orders because public
opinion could affect important events. She hadn't been
happy, but at least she'd been understanding.
It turned out her new boyfriend was better than she
had expected, which I wasn't overjoyed to hear. She
confided that he had plans to whisk her away soon to
his vacation home for an extended weekend. I told her
she could take whatever time she needed, but I hated
doing it. I had crushed on Natalie for a long time, and it
wasn't going to go away overnight. Don't forget to leave a Comment 
