5
Levi
A few months later
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, I can't liquidate my stocks? It is my money, isn't it?"
The fund manager, Patricia Scott, sitting across the desk from me, looked old enough to be my mother, but that didn't make her comforting at all.
The opposite, in fact. She had an unshakable plastic facade that she must have cultivated in all her years managing the tempers and the money of spoiled rich kids.
Her Botoxed cheeks shone as she gave me a weary smile.
"It is. But you can't liquidate without adhering to the requirements of the trust." Her low-pitched raspy voice was even less comforting.
I thought after Ivy had the last guy fired, the clause would no longer be a thing.
But after spending an hour in this oppressive, minimalist white office that must have been designed by a psych ward decorator, I felt like I was moments away from checking myself into one.
We had been circling the same topic and speaking over each other without the other understanding what the other was saying for hours to no end.
"What about a loan? I can take a loan against my shares, right? Use them as collateral or something."
"There are restrictions on that as well. The loan limit, according to the trust," she paused, casting her gaze to the ceiling to recall the amount, "is one hundred thousand dollars. If you want to take more, you have to, you know."
"And if I don't want to?"
"You can challenge the trust." Patricia snatched a pair of giant glasses that were lying on her pristine white desk, put them on, and darted her gaze to the laptop. "We could take it to court. There's a good lawyer we can use." She typed something with dexterous fingers.
"How long would that take?"
She stopped typing. "The whole thing?" She frowned. "If we expedite it, about four months, give or take."
"I don't have that long! I need the money now."
Patricia's gaze darted back to me. "Then you'd have to do what the trust says. Don't you have a nice girl in your life who's dying to get a ring on her finger? You don't look like you'd have a hard time finding a woman willing to marry you."
A pair of beautiful brown eyes flashed through my mind, and I buried the image immediately. "I don't want to get married," I said through gritted teeth.
"So… we try our luck with the courts?" She raised her eyebrows.
I got up from the plush chair. "No. I'll see what I can do."
I have several brothers who are rich enough to help me without blinking. As much as I hated begging, I was sure Nolan especially would help.
His office was not far from where I was. A short drive and I was already there. I thought his assistant would make me wait for popping in unannounced, but she let me in as soon as I came.
"You're lucky I'm free this afternoon," Nolan said when I entered the office. He was standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, which offered a striking view of the city, his back to me. I strode over to him. "How's life treating you?" he asked when I came to stand beside him. "I saw your interview."
"Ugh." I wanted to bury my head in the sand. How did someone as busy as Nolan find that video? "It reached you, too?"
Nolan thrust his hands into his pockets. "I have Google Alerts set for all of you."
Nolan’s controlling nature should not surprise me. Of course, he would want to know what all six of his siblings did. "How very Dad of you."
Nolan scoffed. "You know, Dad didn't love us like that."
He didn't, but he was just as overbearing. Best not to tell him about the similarity. That would jeopardize my mission.
"What brings you here?" Nolan said.
"Can we sit down?"
He raised his eyebrows. "That serious?"
We went to the sitting area of his large office. I sank into the brown mid-century loveseat, and Nolan sat beside me, facing me at a right angle.
"Nothing serious. Well, it's kinda serious to me, anyway."
"Oh?"
"There's a collection I need to acquire. Fifteenth-century collection of books and letters that may prove a theory of mine."
Nolan tilted his head to the side. "Interesting."
"It could be a game changer in our field."
Nolan's eyes narrowed. "Does it have anything to do with that interview? I don't know anything about your field, but that woman made it seem like you were a straight-up liar."
"Which I am not," I said through gritted teeth.
Nolan raised his hands in mock surrender."I've always been on your side, brother. But you know, if you had taken the Yale offer, this would not have happened."
"I didn't want to work at Yale."
"The faculty would have defended you."
"And have everyone think I got the job because my brother bought a building."
Nolan rolled his eyes. "You're an alumnus."
"Well, you should have let me get the job without thumbing the scale if it was going to be so easy." I raised my voice at the end, without meaning to."I was just trying to help." Nolan's voice was low. He sounded small, something I didn't expect from my formidable brother.
"I know. But you do too much sometimes."
He sighed. "That's what Aire says."
"You should listen to your wife. She knows what she's talking about."
"Which is why I didn't do anything this time around."
Nolan and I weren't that close,but I knew when he was lying. "Please don't tell me you tried to get the video taken down."
His head dropped. "It was tougher than I thought."
"Nolan!"
"Sorry! What did you say you wanted to talk to me about?" He said, trying to change the conversation, not realizing we were still on the same damn topic.
"I need money to buy the collection, but I can't liquidate my shares because the trust says I have to be married."
"Oh, that clause. Dad put it in because he thought your mother would take it all for herself. His words, not mine. I thought it was no longer there after Ivy challenged it."
Our father's perception of my mother was not far off, but fuck, why did he have to harm me and my brothers as well? "Ivy's clause was different."
"You can challenge it. I'm sure Tyler and Sebastian would not mind. Though I do like things, the way they are, if I may say so. Makes things easier for me if you guys aren't diluting the family block of shares."
"I don't have time to challenge it. I need the money urgently. It can be a loan."
"How much?"
I named the likely amount the collection might end up being.
Nolan laughed.
"You have shit luck. Do you know that? Did you piss off a fairy or something?"
Oh. God. What now?
"Damien and I bought shares in a startup recently. It's all over the news."
I rarely read business news, and now I wish I did.
"It was a huge stake. We used our personal funds plus some loans, which means I'm illiquid right now. I am cash-poor. But give me a month and I could pull something for you."
"I don't have that long."
Nolan brushed my arm. “Looks like you have to get busy looking for a wife.”