Chapter 9 - AN ACCOUNT WITH MY NAME ON IT
The Monday after the wedding, Amelia Park spread documents across her conference table. She'd spent the weekend checking public filings, old trust correspondence Ruth supplied, and the receipt Daniel had handed me.
“Rose placed $312,600 in a trust for you,” she said. “Helen was trustee until your thirtieth birthday. That's in five weeks.”
I stared at the number. Grandma had never been wealthy. She'd sold her little grocery store after forty years and lived carefully. I imagined her setting money aside while I studied for exams at her kitchen table.
“Where is it now?”
“That's the question your mother has to answer. As trustee, she has recordkeeping duties. We've sent a formal demand for an accounting and preservation of the account.”
Amelia held up Daniel's receipt. It showed a withdrawal of $286,400. The receiving account was labeled Blue Aster Aesthetics LLC.
“Vanessa's business,” I said.
“Is that the spa consulting firm?”
“She tells everyone she owns a treatment studio. I thought investors paid for it.”
Ethan sat forward. “Look at the memo line.”
The transfer was tagged BENEFICIARY APPROVED.
“I never approved anything,” I said.
Amelia nodded. “A bank should have documentation. We need to see it before we decide which claims to bring.”
There was more. A recorded lien had been filed against a small commercial unit Vanessa leased downtown. The lender's public notice named me as a guarantor.
“I have never signed a guarantee for Vanessa,” I said.
“Then don't call her,” Amelia replied. “Not yet. Let me find the document.”
The receptionist knocked and passed Amelia a courier envelope that had arrived minutes earlier.
Inside was a copy of the guarantee.
At the bottom of page seven was my signature.
May you like
It was excellent handwriting.
It wasn't mine.
