by C. M. Albert
“It’s okay. Thanks for seeing me so fast.”
“I’m glad you could make it, actually,” he said, taking a swig of water from a bottle on his desk. “Before we start, have you talked to Carter since coming home?”
“No, why? Is his dad okay?”
“No, actually, he’s not. The cancer is worse than they thought, and it’s spread to other organs. But I’ll let you ask Carter about that. I was talking about what happened the other night on the charity cruise. Wanna talk about it?”
“Not really. And if I do, I’ll find Carter about that, too.”
Dex nodded. “Taking the stubborn route, I see.”
“Dex, look, it’s complicated, okay? And it was probably for the best anyway. I mean, I have an article to wrap up this week, and I wasn’t exactly in a position to be unbiased.”
Dex folded his hands over his stomach and leaned back. “And, you really think that being apart from him will make you unbiased?”
“Yes, I do,” I said. “Bianca managed to write a professional article about you, didn’t she?”
“Not without its ups and downs.”
“But it all worked out in the end,” I pointed out.
“Is that what you want, too? For this to work out with Carter in the end?”
“I don’t know. It’s too soon to be thinking long term. Carter and I—we were just having fun. Getting to know each other again. That was all.”
“Okay,” Dex said, looking unconvinced, “if you say so. I’ll let it go. But, Presley, for the record, I think it meant a little more than that to Carter. In case it matters.”
I swallowed, willing myself not to cry. I was going on very little sleep and a whole lot of emotions. “So, you wanted to tell me about the trust I found in your office at the beach?”
“Yes, I did. First of all, how did you come across it, if I may ask?”
“I wasn’t snooping, if that’s what you want to know. It was on your library desk, and I took a call in there. I, uh, accidentally might’ve put my feet up on your desk during the call, and when I got off, my legs must’ve caught the stack of papers. I’m really sorry, Dex. But I promise I didn’t go snooping for it.”
“And why do you think his name might be on a trust that also talks about The Grove?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?”
“You have to promise me you won’t print any of this. And you won’t share it with Carter unless he shares it with you first.”
“Okay.”
“I’m serious, Presley. It cannot go in your article.”
“Okay! It won’t. I promise.”
Dex pulled a large, stapled document many pages thick from his desk drawer. “Is this what you saw at the beach?”
I looked down at the paperwork. It was the same quality, same letterhead, same law firm, same signatures. I nodded. “I think so. I know it’s not any of my business, Dex. I was just setting it back on the desk when I happened to glance down and saw Carter’s full name on there as key beneficiary,” I said, clearing my throat. “Why would he be a beneficiary of The Grove?”
“The short answer is because in less than two weeks, it’s going to be his.”
“Excuse me?” I said, not understanding. “What’s going to be his?”
“Everything,” Dex said, steepling his fingers.
“I’m sorry, Dex. I guess I need the long answer because I still don’t understand what you mean.”
He grinned. “That’s okay. It took a while for it to sink in with me, too. Hang on,” he said. He called his secretary over the intercom and told her to move his next meeting. “I don’t care. It can wait. Do not let anyone interrupt me until I walk out of this office, okay?”
He looked down at the document and swallowed. “Just so you know, Carter doesn’t know anything about this yet. His father wanted to be the one to tell him—and it was supposed to be on his thirtieth birthday. But with his dad’s health declining so fast, he notified me that he was going to be talking to Carter about it this week.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. “So, how long have you known?”
“Not long at all. In fact, that’s where I was the week before your mother’s wedding. I went down to The Grove to meet with my dad’s lawyers.”
“Did your dad tell you about this? Before he passed away?”
He shook his head. “I had no idea. His lawyers showed me all of the original files, legal paperwork, binding agreements, old journals with testimony and background, and each generation’s signature’s acknowledging the transfer.”
“The transfer of what? And why?”
“A long time ago, it was Carter’s grandfather who owned the land off the coast of South Carolina. It’s not huge, as you’ve seen, but it’s prime real estate. Back then, not so much. It was hardly accessible. It was mostly marshland overrun with alligators, I’ve been told. But Carter’s grandfather was a builder, and he had a vision. He also had the pocketbook to make it happen. Keaton Truitt, my grandpa, and Carter’s grandfather, Pennington, were best friends. ‘Thick as thieves’ as my mother would’ve said.
“Turned out, Pennington had, uh, acquired some of his wealth in a way that made others a little butt hurt, to say the least. A few of those men who felt cheated by Pennington came after him. They were relentless. They set fire to the contractor’s trailer. They ran off good workers by luring them with more lucrative work. And there was a car accident. I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“Oh no. That’s how Carter’s grandmother died!”
“Yes, you know about it?”
“I, uh, may’ve seen a picture at Carter’s house of a ribbon cutting. Carter told me about his grandmother’s passing and how his grandfather deserted them. Rico, my guy from the office, ran a check for me on a few things. But Pennington’s last name wasn’t Wright if I remember correctly.”
“No, it was Cartwright. Pennington Cunningham Cartwright. Notice anything?” he asked, smiling.
“Carter Wright. Cartwright. Well, I’ll be damned.”
“When they killed his wife, Penn lost himself. He was devastated, and he didn’t want to bring any more pain to anyone else. He had a son, Robert Wright, already, and he didn’t want his death on his hands, too.”
“Mister Bob,” I said quietly.
“Yes,” Dex said.
“So, Penn did what? Changed his name? That doesn’t seem very sneaky. Surely men like that could figure it out. Why didn’t he go to the police?”
“Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe the police knew about it, and maybe they looked the other way? These men Penn owed money to, they weren’t exactly of the gentile south variety. These were men he’d made serious enemies of. Penn might’ve thought he was being clever, but it caught up with him in the end. So, yeah, he changed Robert’s name and sent him to live with a young family who worked for him on the island. He was originally Pennington Jr.”
“He doesn’t look like a Pennington.” I was at a loss for what else to say.
“No, he doesn’t,” Dex said, smiling.
“I still don’t understand how he could just leave his son behind. I could never do something like that. I think I’d move heaven and hell to make things right.”
“We think that sometimes, Presley—until we realize we love someone else so fiercely we’d do anything to protect them, first and foremost. He did it to protect Robert, and everything he’d worked legitimately for all those years.”
“Is that how you feel? About Bianca and the kids?”
“I’d walk away from everything tomorrow if it meant keeping them safe, Presley. There’s not a single thing in this world that’s more important to me than protecting them.”
I nodded. That kind of love was something I wanted someday. I felt like I was falling in love with Carter. I loved so
much about him and the man he’d become. Shit. I’d fucked up royally.
“Then what happened?”
“Penn took off. Got out of the country. Completely changed his identity. He sold everything—the island, his properties, his business, his cars, his home—to my grandfather.”
“No shit,” I said.
“It gets better. He sold it to him for one dollar.”
“Come again?”
Dex nodded, letting that sink in. “Penn and Keaton agreed that Keaton would see to the completion of the resort. They’d already had strong interest while in the design and build phase, and they knew it would make money hand over fist. The deal was that the Truitt family would always provide work for Robert when he became old enough, to keep him close to the business. Penn didn’t want to pass his legacy directly onto Robert, because he was afraid for him still. He didn’t want him to end up like his mother. He knew those guys would be too suspicious if the Truitt family immediately sold off the business. Everyone assumed they were business partners anyway, so there was no suspicion when Keaton took over after Penn’s disappearance.”
“Makes sense, I guess. But why a dollar? Why not sell it for face value and skirt out of town loaded?”
Dex laughed.
“He was loaded enough without it. But it was also hard to move that kind of money around that fast back then, Presley. Technology allows us to hide money much easier these days,” he said drolly. “Penn wanted to ensure that future generations of his family would be taken care of. So, the agreement was made, between Keaton and Penn, that on the thirtieth birthday of Robert’s firstborn child, the entire kit and kaboodle would be transferred back to the Wright family, for the amount of—”
“Let me guess, one dollar?”
“Exactly.”
“But why would the Truitts do this all these years? Honor an old deal between two friends long dead?”
“They were like brothers, Presley. It was a pact our family intended to keep. My dad, he wanted nothing to do with the business after grandpa died. He enjoyed the profit from it, and the prestige of owning it. But the day-to-day operations? It wasn’t his style. He was the one who enjoyed being pampered, not the one doing the pampering. Honestly, I think he never really saw it as his, but while he had it, he was going to make a fortune from it. That’s the Truitt way.”
“And that was the deal?”
“Yes. Anything we made while in possession of the assets was the Truitt family’s to keep and invest. It wasn’t completely altruistic. We’ve done quite well adding to our family’s portfolio because of this. But in order for it to be the legacy that Penn envisioned, it needed to have someone close by who remembered the property and had a deep love for it while it was in someone else’s hands.”
“Bob.”
Dex nodded. “Yes. Bob.”
“So, he knew about it all these years? Knew he was busting his ass, but would never see a dime or be able to enjoy the luxuries of the resort?”
“Presley, don’t you see? He did though. He lived there, in paradise, all year long—doing what he loved. He made that resort his in his heart a long time ago. He lived the life he wanted to all these years. He’s excited to finally pass it on to Carter now. Well, I’m sure he’ll still run the place, but everything financially reverts to Carter as the sole living heir.”
I sat in silent disbelief.
“Does that mean the house we stayed in—”
“Everything, Presley.”
I swallowed. This changed everything. Carter wasn’t just a millionaire before thirty. He was now well on his way to becoming a billionaire. “Carter’s not going to like this attention.”
“No, probably not. But it doesn’t have to be made public. We can try to keep the trust quiet for as long as we can. Though with public land transfers and property deed records, it’s a little harder to hide. But with enough money, almost anything is possible these days.”
“Is there still a concern about these men? Their children’s children? What if they come after Carter?”
“They think Penn and his kid were killed in a hurricane that hit Florida that year, after fleeing. That was the news they made sure got back to the island.”
“And they just left Keaton alone? Didn’t find it suspicious that the operation was now his?”
“They didn’t have a beef with him. He was squeaky clean. Like I said, I’m guessing they believed Keaton was a legitimate business partner on the venture from the get-go.” Then Dex chuckled. “Kind of ironic, huh? Ethics must’ve skipped a generation, I guess.”
I knew a little of Dex’s history with his father, mostly from the stories Bianca shared. But it was hard to be in finance and not study what happened with Dex Sr. and Montague Enterprises back in his day.
“Keaton smoothed things over enough to keep the hitmen at bay, but he made it clear he was not his friend’s keeper and they were never allowed on the property again.”
“Well, shit.” I stood and started pacing Dex’s office. “So, your dad never told you?”
“No. He had a heart attack a few years before he died. We thought he was doing better, but the next one took us by surprise. He never had time to. But Myra knew about it.”
“What would’ve happened if Robert never had kids?”
“Then it would’ve stayed in the Truitt family line.”
“Wow. I guess it’s lucky for Carter that your family is so squeaky clean again, then, huh?” I took a deep breath. “So, you’re really just going to transfer everything back over to Carter? Just like that?”
“Well, he’ll owe me a dollar,” Dex said, suppressing a grin. “But, yeah, just like that.”
I looked at him in disbelief.
“Presley, it was never mine to begin with. Just like it was never my father’s. If Carter wasn’t a factor in any of this, I’d probably sell the entire thing off and reinvest the money elsewhere. There’s a lot of maintenance with a place like that.”
“And a lot of profit though, right?”
“Sure,” Dex said, shrugging. “But I’ve got enough of my own. And I’m learning that the older I get, the more I’m interested in reinvesting what I’ve got into the community. Giving back.”
“Is that why Richard Brash is expanding the financial department for the philanthropy division of Montague?”
Dex nodded. “After we opened the Arts and Cultural Center in Jelani’s memory, we realized we wanted to give back even more. That was just a stepping-stone for Bianca and me. Richard’s still staying on as CFO for all of Montague Enterprises, but we need to hire an executive to officially lead the charitable division.”
“That would probably help Lauren relax,” I said, laughing. “If Richard were to get the support he needs.”
“Yeah, I already apologized to her about that one.”
“So, wow, Carter’s life is about to change, big time.”
“Yep,” Dex said. “Hey, has he talked to you since, you know, the whole party went down?”
“No,” I said quietly. “He tried to, but it was a lot to take in. And I was hurt.”
“Just do me a favor, okay? Carter’s not that guy. He’s the farthest thing from that guy. But the media’s doing a good job of painting him in a way that sells papers.”
“Yeah, no thanks to Victor, I’m sure.”
“He has a hand in it, no doubt. So, could you do me a favor? Carter, actually?”
“What is it?”
“As honestly as you can, help him rewrite his narrative, okay? He busted his ass to get off the island and go to college. He served his country, for god’s sake. And I’m pretty sure he explained how his business came to be, right?”
I nodded.
“He’s as altruistic as they come. He took the easy jobs to bankroll his volunteer work. Put up with all that bullshit and being called ‘arm candy’ by
the same rich fucks who hired him. But Presley . . .”
“Yeah?”
“He does more volunteer work these days than not. He made his millions, and that was enough for him. All he wanted to do, being Mister Stand-In, was to stand with those who had to stand alone. Don’t let the media bury that truth. You know Carter by now. At least, I hope you do. Just hear him out.”
I nodded, then gathered my purse from the floor so I could leave.
“One last thing,” Dex said.
“Yeah?”
“Bianca tells me you have a dual degree in business and finance?”
“I do.”
“Ever want to manage a charitable division as a finance executive?”
My mouth fell open. “You mean—”
“Yep. You’d be reporting to Richard, but we’d make sure that didn’t affect pay or performance. You would report directly to me for those because of your family ties now.”
“I don’t know what to say, Dex. You really think I’m qualified enough?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you send me your résumé and let me see?” He stood and came around the desk. He leaned back against it, looking every bit the sexy business mogul that he was. “Bianca put in a good word for you, Presley. She thinks you’re wasting your talent at Finance Times.”
“How come she’s never said any of this to me?”
“She’s your friend. I’m sure in time she would’ve encouraged you to spread your wings. I’m just offering to help you spread them sooner.”
“Thanks, Dex. Does that mean I’d have to call you Mr. Truitt now?”
He laughed. “No. Dex is fine.”
I gave him a quick hug, then headed to the door. At the last minute, I looked back, taking everything in that I’d learned today. It wasn’t just going to change Carter’s life. It would change mine, as well. “Dex?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks,” I said.
“For what?”
“For reminding me of the type of man Carter really is. For trusting me with this information. We’re going to look like asses featuring him as a ‘Thirty Under Thirty’ when a week later he’ll be worth significantly more than that. But that’s for another article, I suppose. And maybe not my worry anymore,” I said, grinning.
