Chapter 11 - Margaret Could Not Blame Grant on Me
Once Grant admitted knowing, he and Margaret turned on each other.
Margaret said Grant should have followed her instructions more carefully.
Grant said none of this would exist if she had not institutionalized Jonathan.
Both statements had truth.
Neither erased personal responsibility.
Margaret's original actions became the subject of renewed legal scrutiny, though four decades of time limited what could realistically be prosecuted or litigated.
The recent conduct was different.
Trust reports.
Corporate certifications.
Financial representations.
Potential concealment of medical evidence.
Those had dates.
Signatures.
Records.
Regulators and prosecutors began reviewing specific matters.
Nobody arrested “half the Whitmore family” in the mansion foyer.
Investigations do not work that way.
Lawyers arrived.
Subpoenas followed.
Grant resigned temporarily as chief executive.
The board formed an independent committee.
Margaret was removed from all current trustee functions while litigation proceeded.
I exercised the only power Walter actually gave me.
I nominated an independent corporate fiduciary.
The court approved one after hearing objections.
Then I stepped back.
I did not become Jonathan’s financial manager.
He had spent enough of his life having relatives manage him.
His own counsel helped him petition for full restoration of control.
The court granted it after evaluations and evidence.
Jonathan walked outside afterward holding one folder.
No celebration.
No cameras.
He looked at me.
“Forty years.”
“I know.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“Nobody knows what forty years is.”
May you like
He was right.
I stopped trying to answer.
