Chapter 6 - HIS MOTHER CALLED ME THE NEXT MORNING
Elizabeth Hale called at 6:42 a.m.
She did not say hello.
“You froze Daniel’s business account.”
“Hale Advisory’s account.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
That one word annoyed her immediately.
“Claire, I understand you’re upset.”
I almost laughed.
“Do you?”
“Daniel made personal mistakes.”
“Your son moved money from a company I majority-own into a company he formed with his mistress.”
Silence.
Then:
“You always have to make things sound ugly.”
There it was.
The family defense mechanism.
Bad facts were not the problem.
Accurate nouns were.
I asked:
“Did you know about Vanessa?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Five months.”
“Did you tell Daniel to stop?”
“No.”
“Did you encourage him?”
“No.”
“Did you invest eighty thousand dollars into their company?”
Silence.
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
“With what money?”
“My own.”
“From Horizon Family Services?”
Longer silence.
“That money was earned.”
“Doing what?”
She became angry.
“I helped build Daniel into the man he is.”
I almost said that was not the argument she thought it was.
Instead:
“Did you perform documented services for Hale Advisory?”
“I advised him.”
“On the affair too?”
She hung up.
Twenty minutes later, she called back.
This time calmer.
“Claire, Daniel told me your marriage was over.”
“It wasn’t.”
“He said you lived separate lives.”
“We had breakfast together every morning.”
“He said you were staying together for convenience.”
“He slept in my bed six nights ago.”
Silence.
She had believed her son.
Or chosen to.
Then she said:
“He told me Vanessa understood him.”
Of course.
“What did he say about the house?”
Another pause.
“That you planned to move.”
“Did he tell you he intended to borrow against it?”
Silence.
That answered me.
Elizabeth knew.
Maybe not every detail.
Enough.
Then I asked:
“Why did you invest?”
She sighed.
“Daniel said D&V Strategic would eventually acquire Hale Advisory’s client portfolio.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“What?”
“He said you would be bought out.”
I stopped breathing.
“By whom?”
“D&V.”
My own company’s money was being moved into a new company partly so that new company could eventually purchase my interest.
That was almost elegant in its arrogance.
“How much did he say I would receive?”
“Claire—”
“How much?”
“Six hundred thousand.”
I laughed.
Hale Advisory’s fair value was likely several million.
My sixty percent could be worth far more than six hundred thousand.
Daniel intended to offer me a fraction.
Maybe after draining enough cash and debt-loading the business to justify the low number.
Elizabeth seemed to realize she had said too much.
“I shouldn’t be discussing this.”
“No.”
“You should have discussed it months ago.”
After the call, Leah and I reviewed valuation records.
Then we found a draft.
Hale Advisory acquisition proposal.
Buyer:
D&V Strategic Partners.
Proposed purchase price:
$1 million.
Debt assumed:
$500,000.
Cash at closing:
$500,000.
Ownership after closing:
Daniel 45%.
Vanessa 35%.
Elizabeth 20%.
I stared.
Claire:
Nothing.
The draft proposed that I would be “cashed out” before closing through a marital settlement.
A marital settlement that did not exist.
Daniel had built an entire corporate transaction around a divorce he had never even discussed with me.
Then Leah pointed toward the footer.
Prepared by:
Mason & Pierce Advisory.
I knew that firm.
Their senior partner, Gregory Mason, had been our family financial adviser for six years.
May you like
I had introduced Daniel to him.
And according to the draft, Gregory had been helping my husband plan how to buy me out.
