Chapter 4 - THE MANSION PAID FOR BY THE GIRLS
Harrell Urban Partners produced the requested records eleven days later.
Only after Summit threatened suit.
Stella expected to find arrogance.
Inflated expenses.
Maybe Brooke on payroll at a salary higher than her actual responsibilities justified.
She found all three.
Then Evelyn called.
“Sit down.”
“That phrase never improves my day.”
“The Minnetonka estate wasn’t purchased by Gavin.”
Stella frowned.
“He announced the purchase publicly.”
“He lied.”
The twelve-acre property belonged to Harrell Legacy Lake LLC—the same entity that received Gavin’s twenty-eight-percent company transfer.
Meredith controlled sixty percent.
Gavin twenty.
Another Harrell trust twenty.
“So the party wasn’t even at his house.”
“No.”
“That’s embarrassing.”
“Wait.”
Evelyn pulled up the acquisition ledger.
More than seven hundred thousand dollars used for the down payment, guesthouse work, pool renovations, wine cellar, landscaping, and pavilion improvements had not come from Meredith.
It had come through two descendant-support subaccounts established under Gavin’s grandfather’s trust.
Beneficiaries:
Hazel Harrell.
Paige Harrell.
Stella read the names twice.
Then a third time.
“That can’t be right.”
“I wish it weren’t.”
The subtrusts permitted distributions for health, education, maintenance, and support.
Ordinary beneficiary language.
Private school.
Medical care.
Reasonable housing support.
Not wine cellars.
Not a twelve-acre estate the beneficiaries did not own.
Not landscape lighting.
Not a party where those same children were served leftovers.
Stella felt something inside her change.
Not anger.
Something colder.
“How much?”
“Seven hundred sixteen thousand and change.”
“Who approved the distributions?”
“Meredith as administrative trustee.”
“And Gavin?”
“Signed several reimbursement certifications representing the expenses as benefiting Hazel and Paige.”
Stella drove to Gavin’s temporary apartment that evening.
She brought copies.
He looked at them for less than five seconds.
“Mom handled the trust.”
“You signed the requests.”
“They were family expenses.”
“A wine cellar is not Paige’s maintenance.”
“The estate is for everyone.”
“Then why don’t your daughters own any of it?”
Silence.
Gavin tried another route.
“You’re overreacting.”
Stella laughed once.
“You used money belonging to our children.”
“It was temporary.”
“Seven hundred sixteen thousand dollars is temporary?”
“It’s coming back.”
“When?”
“After the next capital raise.”
She stopped.
“What capital raise?”
Gavin’s face changed.
Tiny.
But Stella saw it.
Harrell Urban Partners was in trouble.
Deep trouble.
May you like
And suddenly the affair, the pregnancy, the company transfer, and Meredith’s obsession with a grandson looked less like separate betrayals.
They looked coordinated.
