Chapter 10 - THE REASON MY FATHER GAVE ME TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS
Julian printed the consent.
He brought it to Richard’s temporary office on Madison Avenue.
Vance Urban was already preparing to sublease two floors.
Another cost reduction.
Richard looked at the signature.
“Where did you get this?”
“Charles.”
His father closed his eyes.
“Of course.”
“Is it yours?”
“Yes.”
Julian laughed.
“So every speech was a lie.”
“No.”
“You approved using my trust.”
“Read the document.”
“I did.”
“No.”
Richard pushed it back.
“Read the condition on page four.”
Julian had skimmed.
He hated that.
Page four.
FAMILY CAPITAL PARTICIPATION SUBJECT TO VOLUNTARY ELECTION OF JULIAN VANCE AFTER INDEPENDENT COUNSEL, WITH NO SOLICITATION PRIOR TO DISTRIBUTION.
Julian looked up.
“You approved the structure.”
“As an option.”
“Why?”
“Because the board needed alternatives.”
“Then what changed?”
Richard looked older.
“Me.”
Julian waited.
His father walked to the window.
“Two weeks before I cut you off, the lenders rejected our first restructuring.”
“I know.”
“Charles said we would need family money.”
“Mine.”
“Yes.”
“What did you say?”
“I said we would discuss every option.”
“So you signed.”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
Richard rubbed his chest unconsciously.
“I went home.”
“And?”
“You had six people in the dining room.”
Julian remembered.
Mason.
Sloane.
Two friends from college.
Champagne.
A private chef.
A Tuesday.
“You told Rosa to order more caviar because Mason didn’t like the first one.”
Julian closed his eyes.
He remembered making the joke.
Richard continued.
“You asked whether the Range Rover could be replaced because the new model had better screens.”
“Dad.”
“I went upstairs.”
His voice changed.
“I sat in your mother’s room and opened her notebook.”
Julian went still.
“You knew Rosa had it.”
“I gave it to her later.”
“Why?”
“Because I read the page about asking you for money.”
Richard’s eyes filled.
“And I realized if I came downstairs that night and said, ‘Julian, the company is in trouble. I need fifteen million,’ you would have said yes.”
Julian did not answer.
Because he would have.
Immediately.
Not after reviewing terms.
Not after asking about Charles’s incentives.
Not after calculating.
Because Dad asked.
Richard continued.
“Not because you understood the company.”
“No.”
“Not because it was a good investment.”
“No.”
“Because you believed saying yes was what sons with money do.”
Julian looked away.
“Probably.”
“That scared me more than the refinancing.”
The room was silent.
“So you cut me off.”
“I went to Nora the next morning.”
“What did she say?”
“That your mother had left the thirty-day instruction.”
“And you finally used it.”
“Yes.”
“Why two hundred?”
Richard almost smiled.
“Your mother.”
“Of course.”
Richard opened his desk.
He removed a photocopy of another notebook page.
Elise had written:
When I came to New York at twenty-two, I had $214 after my train ticket and first week’s rent.
Richard remembers it as romantic because he met me later.
It was not romantic.
I was terrified.
Julian swallowed.
His mother had grown up in western Pennsylvania.
He knew that.
He knew she had worked in publishing before marrying Richard.
He had never thought about the part before comfort.
Elise continued:
Do not give Julian $214. He will assume the extra fourteen dollars means something symbolic and become unbearable.
Julian laughed through sudden tears.
Richard did too.
“She knew me.”
“Yes.”
“So two hundred.”
“Yes.”
Julian sat.
The major truth was suddenly painfully simple.
His father had not cut him off because Richard believed the family fortune was permanent.
He had cut him off because Richard knew it might not be.
Vance Urban was shrinking.
Richard was selling the Hamptons house.
The Manhattan townhouse was next.
His heart needed a procedure.
Charles wanted Julian’s trust.
Richard knew that if nothing changed, Julian would hand it over simply because the request came wrapped in the word family.
“You thought you were going to lose everything.”
Richard looked at him.
“Not everything.”
“Enough.”
“Yes.”
“And instead of telling me, you made me learn how rent works.”
“That was the terrible version.”
“What was the good version?”
Richard’s mouth tightened.
“I wanted one thing your mother and I had failed to give you.”
“What?”
“A life that still functioned if Vance disappeared.”
Julian’s anger remained.
But it could no longer stand in the same shape.
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“From Day One.”
“Yes.”
“You should not have made Rosa choose between helping me and obeying you.”
“Yes.”
“You should not have had security follow me without telling me where they were.”
Richard hesitated.
“Yes.”
“You should have called.”
That one took longer.
“Yes.”
Julian looked at him.
“Why didn’t you?”
Richard’s face broke slightly.
“Because I missed you.”
Julian said nothing.
“And I knew if I heard you say you needed me, I would end it.”
Julian looked down.
“I did need you.”
Richard nodded.
“I know.”
“Not your money.”
“I know that now.”
There.
The failure at the center of the entire lesson.
Richard had tried to teach Julian that money and love were separate by withdrawing both at once.
He had almost taught the opposite.
Julian stood.
“What happens now?”
“You go to work.”
“And us?”
Richard looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Good.
No speech.
No instant forgiveness.
Julian reached the door.
Richard said, “One more thing.”
Julian turned.
His father opened a drawer and removed a thick legal packet.
“What is that?”
“My personal balance sheet.”
Julian frowned.
“Why?”
Richard placed it on the desk.
“Because if I ever ask you for money, your mother required I show you what I risked first.”
Julian looked at the first page.
Southampton:
SOLD.
Townhouse:
LISTING PREPARATION.
Personal Vance shares pledged:
62%.
Chicago hotel interest:
FOR SALE.
Cash reserves:
COMMITTED TO RESTRUCTURING.
Julian looked up.
May you like
Richard had not been protecting a fortune while demanding that his son learn hardship.
He had already placed nearly everything he personally owned between the company and Julian’s trust.
