Chapter 11 - AUSTIN FINALLY STOPPED LETTING THEM RESCUE HIM
Austin came to my house alone.
No sunglasses.
No perfect polo.
No attitude.
He looked terrible.
“Can I come in?”
I considered making him stand outside.
Then Lily appeared behind me.
One crutch.
“Hi, Uncle Austin.”
He almost broke.
“Hi, Lil.”
She waited.
So did I.
Austin swallowed.
“I’m sorry I didn't call.”
Lily nodded.
“Okay.”
“No. It's not okay.”
She looked surprised.
He continued.
“I knew about the surgery. I knew it was serious. I was busy with stupid things and I told myself your dad would handle it because he always handles everything.”
Lily looked at me.
Then back at him.
“That sounds like Grandma.”
Austin laughed painfully.
“Yeah.”
He apologized without asking for forgiveness.
That mattered.
Then we sat.
He brought financial documents.
Blue Crest was finished.
Jyn had ended the engagement.
Austin planned to sell his BMW and condo.
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because some of the money should go back to Lily.”
I studied him.
“How much do you have?”
“Not enough.”
“Then don't make dramatic promises.”
He flinched.
I sounded like Grandma Margaret.
Good.
“Make realistic ones.”
Austin nodded.
He had hired a bankruptcy attorney to deal with legitimate business debts.
But he wanted any assets traceable to trust distributions handled separately.
“I didn't know at first.”
“At first?”
He looked down.
“Last year I started suspecting.”
There it was.
“How?”
Dad once referred to the money as Lily's account during an argument.
Austin asked questions.
Dad told him not to worry.
“And you stopped asking.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Austin's eyes filled.
“Because I needed the money.”
Honesty.
Ugly honesty.
Finally.
“You knew enough to be uncomfortable.”
“Yes.”
“And chose not to know more.”
“Yes.”
I leaned back.
“I can work with truth. I can't work with excuses.”
He nodded.
Then he told me something I never expected.
“The Bahamas event wasn't my idea.”
I stared.
“Whose?”
“Mom's.”
Apparently Mom believed the engagement celebration could attract wealthy clients to Blue Crest.
She pushed for a destination event.
Luxury photos.
Business networking.
Potential investors.
Austin and Jyn wanted a smaller party in Florida.
Mom insisted.
“She said if we were going to save the company, we needed to look successful.”
That sentence summarized my entire family.
Look successful.
Then figure out who would pay later.
“Did Dad agree?”
“Yes.”
“And then they raided Lily's trust.”
Austin nodded miserably.
He reached into his folder.
“One more thing.”
A contract.
Blue Crest's seed-investment agreement.
Investor:
R. Reed Family Holdings.
$100,000.
I frowned.
“Dad doesn't have a holding company.”
“No.”
Austin pointed at the taxpayer identification number.
I recognized it.
My old consulting LLC.
The one I had closed ten years earlier.
Or thought I closed.
Dad had reactivated a company associated with my name and used it to make investments.
Not only had my family taken Lily's money.
They had been moving it through a business identity connected to me.
If Blue Crest failed with unpaid taxes or vendor claims, my name could appear in the paper trail.
May you like
They had not merely used me as the family ATM.
They had made me part of the liability without telling me.
