Chapter 9 - THE UNCLE AT THE CENTER
I had not spoken to Uncle Robert in almost two years.
He and my father had been opposites.
My father built companies carefully.
Robert chased risk.
Casinos.
Speculative properties.
Failed restaurants.
A technology investment that cost him nearly twenty million dollars.
Every time Robert stumbled, my father rescued him.
Until the last time.
Their final argument became family legend.
My father refused to cover another debt.
Robert accused him of stealing their father’s legacy.
My father cut him out of daily company operations.
After my father died, Robert retained money and minority interests.
But no real authority.
Now his name was in Margaret’s notebook.
Detective Ramirez found him before I did.
He was staying at a resort in Scottsdale.
When investigators approached him, he denied everything.
Then they showed him phone records.
Twenty-three calls with Margaret in two months.
Eleven with Thomas Beck.
Six with Evelyn Marsh.
Robert changed his story.
He claimed he was advising Margaret on “family matters.”
Ramirez called me afterward.
“Do not contact him.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“You were thinking about it.”
She was right.
“What does he want?”
“We don’t know yet.”
I looked through the windows of my office at the desert beyond Phoenix.
“I do.”
Robert had always believed my father cheated him.
If Margaret gained control of the trust, she could restore Robert to a powerful position.
He would support her.
She would reward him.
Old resentment had turned into a business plan.
But there was still something I could not understand.
“Why now?”
Ramirez asked.
“What?”
“They could have attempted this before.”
I thought about it.
My father had been dead five years.
I had chaired the company almost that entire time.
Why wait?
Then I remembered a transaction scheduled for September.
Wentworth Holdings was preparing to merge its logistics division with a larger international partner.
If completed, the deal would dramatically increase the value of several family-held shares.
Including Robert’s.
But there was another effect.
The merger would simplify the voting structure.
Margaret’s limited authority would shrink even further.
They were running out of time.
I called Daniel.
“How long until the merger?”
“Final vote is in three weeks.”
“That’s why.”
Silence.
Then Daniel understood.
“They had to take control before the restructuring.”
“Yes.”
My phone buzzed.
An unknown number.
I answered.
“Austin.”
Robert’s voice.
I said nothing.
“You’ve made a terrible mistake.”
“I was told not to speak with you.”
“Then listen.”
His tone remained calm.
“Your mother is frightened.”
“She should be.”
“You think you know what happened.”
“I have video.”
“You have part of what happened.”
I almost hung up.
Then Robert said something that stopped me.
“Ask Irene why she had access to the succession documents before your mother ever approached her.”
I stared at the wall.
“What are you implying?”
“I’m not implying anything.”
May you like
Robert lowered his voice.
“I’m telling you your wife has a secret too.”
