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Sorry it's been a while, my kids have been needing extra attention, and we've had A LOT going on. I'm going to try to get some writing done this week.
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Logan stood in his office next to his sister, with his arms crossed over his chest, having a staring match with his father. Logan knew that his sister had been bluffing with most of what she had told their Dad, in an attempt to get him talking. They had both done their best to try to pry information out of Mitchum, without telling him just how much they both knew, or didn't know in their case. Logan had no idea if Mitchum would crack, but he was hoping pretty hard. Mitchum was a really hard egg to crack. The man had a lifetime of secrets, and Logan was sure that most of them Mitchum would take to his grave. Getting information out of his Dad was worse than pulling teeth. You could throw everything you had at Mitchum, and still, you had to hope and pray that the man would bite the bullet and give you the information that you wanted. It had already been five minutes of deafening silence, and Logan wasn't sure how much more of it he could take, when Mitchum finally cleared his throat.
"You can't freeze all outgoing payments." Mitchum spoke up.
"And why not?" Logan asked.
"Each of the properties has an expense account."
"For what reason?"
"For the care taker. The accounts cover taxes and upkeep. It's how the cleaning service is paid."
"Why do we need a cleaning service for a vacant property?"
"They haven't always been vacant. One of the New York properties is yours. You have a second one in New Haven. The apartments that you lived in. I put them in your name. Honor has one in both cities as well."
"What do you mean you put them in our name?"
"The properties the two of your lived in back in college, then after Yale. I kept them in case you ever needed them. I would have told you had the need arisen. You are both shareholders as well as HPG employees. You are entitled to company housing. I signed the properties over to you about 5 years ago."
"We weren't even on speaking terms 5 years ago."
"I know that. It's why I signed the properties over. You know how to hold quite the grudge. I put the properties in your name, with accounts set up for any expenses that might be needed."
"And when were you planning to tell us about it?" Honor asked.
"It's in my will. I know that you don't need my help, but it was my way of insuring that you are taken care of in case things with Josh ever ended. You would have two homes to choose from. You wouldn't be left destitute."
"And Logan? You refused to pay for medical school, but yet you gave him two properties?"
"Logan is my son. No matter how much he defies me, he's still my son."
"What about the others?" Logan asked.
"Most of the others are vacant."
"And the ones that aren't?"
"Some of them have other employees living in them."
"Employees who aren't paying rent?"
"A few of the editors that I needed to entice away from other large papers were given housing as part of their contract."
"I need those contracts. Any contract that anyone had with you is now null and void. My attorney will go over them and chose whether we should honor your contract, or whether the employee deserves a new one."
"You can't just throw people out of their home, Logan."
"It's business, Dad. You of all people should understand that. The property is losing money without rental income coming in. No one deserves a free ride. Even Honor and I work for our income with this company."
"You will have to negotiate a new contract."
"Or just find someone new to take the person's place and save us some money."
"What else, Dad?" Honor asked.
"The only person receiving company funding is a little boy in Greece."
"A little boy?" Logan asked. "As in a child?"
"His mother refused to have an abortion. She said that she was placing the child up for adoption. I set up a college account for him, just like I did for both of you. Money is deposited monthly, until the boy turns 25. Currently, I believe he is about 7 years old."
"But you signed your rights away?"
"I was told that my name was never listed as his father. I have no rights. I just set up an account for later on. A lot of children these days, go looking for their birth parents later on. If this boy ever decides to go looking for his birth parents, I wanted him to have the same things that you and your sister had. He may not grow up as a Huntzberger, but the least I could do was insure that he can afford to go to a good college, if that is what he chooses to do."
"Do you have any information about this child?" Logan asked.
"Only his mother's name. I have specific guidelines set up on the account before he will ever be granted access."
"What kind of guidelines?"
"He'll have to submit to a DNA test, be enrolled in a reputable university, or be 25 years old in order to access any of the funds."
"How much is in the account?"
"I'm not sure. By the time he turns 18, it should be around $500,000, plus whatever interest has accumulated. It's the same thing that I had set up for both of you."
"So you have no knowledge about this boy at all?"
"None. I haven't spoken to his mother since before he was born."
"Does she know about the money?"
"Not at all. I paid for all of her medical bills until after the baby was born. I had the doctor's office send the bills directly to me."
"Does Mom know any of this?" Honor asked.
"Not a word."
"And what about Walker?" Logan asked.
"All money that Walker received, I gave her in cash, whenever she asked for it. I never asked what it was for. If she mentioned needing money, I gave it to her."
"So that property has an account with a cleaning crew as well?"
"Every property has one."
"Do you realize how much money you've been wasting? Why do we need to pay for upkeep on properties that we don't need?"
"They haven't always been vacant. But the ones that are vacant I couldn't have them falling into disrepair."
"Why didn't you just sell them?"
"I kept then in case they were needed later on. Some of them I use for staffers visiting from other locations.
"You realize that a hotel room would be much cheaper, right?"
"Maybe. But they wouldn't be as comfortable. Which reminds me. The apartment you lived in while you were in London, it's still there if you want it."
"Is it in my name?"
"It is. And my London home is in Honor's name. Had she ever moved overseas, I would have found her a property of her own."
"I have no reason to live in London." Honor told him.
"That is why I gave you my property. I only stayed there when I was in town on business."
"What about Mom? Did you ever think to give her a property?" Logan asked.
"Your mother is already taken care of. If something were to happen to me, your mother has a set amount that she gets, and everything else goes to the two of you. You can divide it up however you would like. I figured you would give her one of the other properties if you thought she deserved it."
"Ok, so here is what is going to happen . . . You are telling Mom about ALL of this."
"Logan, what I do with my money is my business."
"But it's NOT your money anymore. It's RORY'S money!" Loan told him. "And you are either going to tell Mom, or I am going to tell Mom. You are also going to destroy your prenup. Mom is going to no longer be bound by Grandpa's ridiculous terms. I am going to have Collin draw up a new contract completely absolving Mom from any and all contracts she might have been forced to sign prior to right now. ALL of them will be voided. Mom will get an equal expense account to what you get, meaning exactly half of your retirement salary. And maybe some back pay for the last 38 years of bull shit that you've put her through. Mom will also be given ownership of either the New York penthouse that you currently live in, or the Hartford house, whichever I feel she is entitled to. And you are going to tell mom EVERY detail of what you've just told us, including the boy in Greece. And IF Mom chooses to stay with you, that is her choosing. And if she decides to leave, she still gets half of your income for the rest of her life. You will BOTH be signing the new contract, and agreeing to my stipulations, or you will both be homeless and completely financially cut off, because I know for a fact that both of your homes are owned by HPG, and I can legally evict you from them if I choose to. It will take a few days for Collin to get the new contract drawn up, but when it is, You, Honor, Josh, Mom, Collin, Rory and I will be sitting down together again, and you will be opening up about EVERYTHING we just discussed, and you will honestly answer all of the questions that you are asked, because if I think that you are lying, I will have you submit to a polygraph test. Do I make myself clear?"
"Logan, no one needs to be involved in any of this except the two of you."
"I asked you if I had made myself clear, Dad? You are doing this, or you will be homeless and penniless. I will completely cut you off. You've treated Mom like absolute shit since the day you met her, and you are going to start making up for it right this second. Unless there is more that you need to tell us, you are going to leave my office, and go apologize to my wife for being intrusive in her business, and you are going to tell her how beautiful she looks, and praise her for being so amazing and to have given birth to that beautiful little girl in there. And you will continue to be gracious to her from now on, and never butt into her life EVER again, or you will lose everything. Do you understand me? None of this is optional or up for discussion. You WILL do it, or I will cut you off just as quickly as I kick you out of my home. Now, is there anything else that you would like to tell us before we find out from the investigations that are currently going on?"
"The only women that received money, received it from me."
"I need your safe code. I am going to your apartment to retrieve all your paperwork. I'll be retrieving everything from Hartford as well."
"The code is the same in both places."
"Honor, will you take Dad back to the living room please? I am going to head over to Mom and Dad's apartment."
"Take Josh with you?"
"Dad, you know the deal. You go praise Rory for everything that she's done for you, and for this family. And you had better praise that little girl that she gave birth to as well, or so help me, I will destroy everything that you think you have going for you."
"Dad will be on his best behavior, won't you, Dad?" Honor asked.
"I don't appreciate your blackmail, Logan."
"Then hire an attorney to fight me on it . . . But doing so would mean that someone else would find out about all of your dirty secrets, and you wouldn't want that, now would you?" Logan asked as he moved toward the office door, opening it and holding his arm out for Mitchum to exit the room. Logan watched Honor's face as Mitchum turned to leave the office, walking past both of them.
"Damn!" Honor silently mouthed to her brother.
"Watch him like a hawk."
"You know I will."
"Rory!" Logan called, still standing in the doorway to his office once both Honor and Mitchum were on their way back to the living room.
"Coming!" Rory called back, getting up from her chair, and looking toward Honor, giving her a questioning look as he headed that way.
"Holy shit!" Honor silently mouthed, then jerked her head toward where Logan was waiting.
Once Rory walked into the office, Logan closed the door, nearly collapsing against it.
"That good, huh?" Rory asked.
"My mom is getting out of the ridiculous prenup she was forced to sign."
"Oh really?! I only have a couple minutes, but I'll tell you the rest later. I need to go over to my parents' apartment and confiscate everything in the safe."
"Your Dad told you what we suspected."
"I threatened to put him in prison. And now I'm taking all the knowledge I have and forcing him to come clean to my mom. I'm writing up a new contract giving her 50% of everything he's got, for the rest of her life, and he can either shut the hell up and sign it, or I told him that he'll not only be homeless, but penniless too, because I will take his entire retirement away from him. He'll have NOTHING!"
"Well damn! Do you want me to go to the apartment with you?"
"No. I need you to stay here. I told Dad he had better start apologizing to you. Honor is having Josh go with me. We won't be long. I just need to get the contracts that are in there, and whatever else he's hiding. Then tomorrow, I need to go do the same at the Hartford house."
"Ok."
"I need to get going, but I wanted to let you know where I'll be for the next little while."
"Just text me when you get there and when you finish, so I know that you are ok, and on your way home."
"We'll talk later, ok?"
"Do you want me to go grab Collin for you?"
"That might be a good idea."
"You look pretty messed up."
"I feel pretty messed up."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"I do, but I'm trying to wrap my mind around it right now."
"Ok . . ."
"I mean, logically, as a doctor, I see this stuff all the time. And it's all perfectly normal. But as a person . . . As a parent, I guess, it's just a lot harder for me to understand."
"Logan . . ."
"I have a brother . . ."
"What?!"
"Apparently my Dad impregnated some girl in Greece, and she put the baby up for adoption. Dad said that he's about 7 years old."
"Wow!"
"He said that he doesn't know anything except the mother's name, but that there's a college account set up for the kid, just like what Honor and I had growing up."
"How can he even do that, if he doesn't know any information about the kid?"
"That doesn't make sense to me either. He said that kids these days tend to look up their birth parents later in life, so he wanted to give this kid all the same things that Honor and I had. Dad said the kid can either use the money to go to a good college, or he'll have to wait until he's 25 before he'll get access to it."
"I'm pretty sure that it's not even possible to set up any kind of bank account for someone, without having their social security number. Even an account for a baby. I couldn't even set up a college account for Ayribella with my grandparents, because we don't have a social for her yet. Your Dad knows more than he's letting on."
"Exactly! I'm going to head over to his apartment and pull everything out of the safe, and bring it all back here. As soon as we get rid of my parents, I'm going to start going through it, and see if I can make sense out of everything."
"I can't believe that you have a brother that you never knew about."
"And he's 7. My dad has been keeping this from all of us for the last 7 years."
"That sounds like Mitchum."
"Considering how much he inflicts himself on all of us, he's never even tried to be in this kid's life. He said that he didn't get a choice in the matter. He didn't even get to sign his rights away, because it was the 'mother's decision.' He didn't even try to be involved. He just bailed on his child like a total coward."
"I can't even imagine doing that."
"Right?! How do you just abandon your child? I mean, as a doctor, I understand people not being able to parent their children, and having to give them up for adoption in order to give them a better life. I've been there when babies have been surrendered at the hospital. I understand it from a medical perspective. But from a personal perspective, and as a parent . . . I just can't even imagine it. How can anyone not completely love and want their baby?"
"I don't know either. It still baffles me that my Dad is so detached from my life. He's always been on the outside. But then there's Luke. He's been there since the day he met me. And from the second he found out about April, he's fought to be there for her too."
"And he's now here for Ayribella. Did you see him rocking her to sleep last night? She's got him wrapped around her tiny little finger."
"Luke never even liked kids. He never wanted them. He says that he tolerated me because I was a mini adult, and incredibly well behaved. I was never a child to him. Luke was there for every one of my birthdays, every school event, he cooked for me every time I was sick; when I had the chickenpox, he was there. But my Dad never was. My Dad only showed up when it was convenient for him."
"Which explains why your Mom and Luke are here right now, but your Dad is out of the country."
"Exactly!"
"I just don't get it. I can't even imagine walking away from your daughter."
"Well, let's just look at it this way . . . You aren't Mitchum. You've always done your best to be the opposite of who your father is. And like my Mom has told me several times, you aren't Christopher either. You are better than both of them."
"I don't even want to leave Ayribella to run to the apartment right now, but I know that I need to."
"Well, why don't I go grab her from your parents and bring her in here for you to say goodbye before you go."
"I don't want my parents freaking out over you stealing her away."
"Well that's just too damn bad, because I'm her mother! Send Collin a text and have him come down and go with you and Josh, and I'll be right back with Ayribella."
"Thank you for being here. And for not judging me."
"I would never judge you about something like this. Other things, yes, but never this."
"I promise that I will tell you everything later tonight." Logan said, reaching for Rory and pulling her into his arms.
"It's going to be ok. I promise. Text Collin, alright? I'll be right back."
Text Message To Collin
From Logan:
I need you to run an errand with me.
You can all take a break and come downstairs.
I'm in my office.
"Let's go see your Daddy. He's missing his little girl right now." Rory cooed to the baby in her arms as she walked back into Logan's office, cradling their daughter.
"Hey, there's my beautiful little Princess." Logan smiled, taking Ayribella from Rory's arms. "How are you liking your crazy grandparents? Have you gotten a chance to spit up on them yet?"
"Hey, no talking bad about anyone in front of her. Adult problems are none of her business."
"You're right. I'm sorry. Daddy loves you so much, little girl! I need to run out for a little while, but I promise you, as soon as I get back, it's going to be you and me. Daddy is always going to be here for you. I am going to be a much better Daddy to you than I ever had."
"Look at her just watching you." Rory smiled. "She's just staring up at you like you are the most important person in the world."
"She is the most important person in the world. Aren't you my sweet, beautiful little girl?"
"Alright, is it your attorney that you need to run an errant with , or your best friend?" Collin asked, walking into Logan's office, with Stephanie behind him. "I need to know which hat to put on."
"Can I have both?" Logan asked.
"Probably, but I'll have to charge you accordingly."
"Uncle Collin is funny, isn't he? Crazy guy thinks he can change Daddy for being his friend. He's so silly."
"Hey, your friendship tends to get pretty expensive at times."
"We can drink when my parents leave."
"Deal!" Collin said stepping up next to his friend, and reaching his hand out for Ayribella. "How's the cutest niece in the whole world? You aren't letting the crazy people corrupt you already, are you? Because that's Uncle Collin and Uncle Finn's job."
"Hey, no corrupting the baby! She's too young!" Stephanie told him.
"Steph, is it ok if I borrow Collin? I need to run over to my parents' apartment and raid their safe." Logan told her.
"Sounds ominous."
"It's a long story. I'll explain everything after my parents leave. I promise to not be too long."
"Take all the time you need. Valerie is with my parents tonight, so we've got all night to hang out with you guys."
"I'll make it up to you."
"I'll take payment in baby snuggles."
"I can do that." Logan smiled. "I love you, Princess. You go see Aunty Stephanie, and Daddy will be home again as soon as he finishes raiding Grandpa's safe."
"Come to Aunty Stephanie." Stephanie said excitedly as Logan kissed his daughter, then passed her off to his friend. "You and I are going to have so much fun together when you are a little bit older. I will teach you all the different ways to con stuff from your Daddy."