The Love Of Money - Episode 5
25-07-25 (19:11)
"No Mr. Upton," Karl said, "I'm not referring to that
grandfather. I'm referring to Colin Gerrard Senior-your
father's father. Are you familiar with him?"
Had I not switched from standing to sitting 20 minutes
ago, I would have fallen on my ass. I never met my
birth father, or any of his family. My mother never
talked to me about them, and had shut down the
conversation anytime there was an attempt to pry
information from her. I hadn't even known my father's
family name.
"I I uh.." My mind was racing as I tried to make sense
of this crazy thing coming out of left field, right on the
heels of being dumped by my girlfriend this morning.
"Are you sure you have the right guy?"
"Marcus William Upton. You're twenty-eight years old.
You work as a financial analyst for a firm called
Marduke LLC. Your mother is Shawna Louise Smith
Upton married to Henry David Upton, who adopted you
and gave you his name? You have a step sister and
two half-brothers. Is that accurate?"
"Yeah," I said. "That's me."
"Your grandfather passed away recently, and you are
the sole recipient of his estate. We would like to meet
with you and discuss the details. When would be a
good time?"
"I'm... at work right now," I said, but curiosity was
quickly eroding any desire I had to finish my work day.
I'd technically had the day off, so I was pretty sure no
one would mind if I bounced early today. I pulled up an
online map of New York, "What firm do you work for?"
"I'm one of the partners for Yunger, Price, and
VanCamp."
The location appeared to be about forty minutes by taxi.
"Would this afternoon be okay? Say four?"
"That would be fine, Mr. Upton. A car will be outside of
Marduke at 3:15 to pick you up, if you'd like."
That took me by surprise. "Seriously?"
"Of course. You don't have to take it if you'd prefer to
drive yourself."
I hesitated. What the hell was going on? Was this some
sort of prank?
"Is this some sort of prank?"
Yunger laughed on the other side of the line, "I assure
you this isn't any sort of prank or anything nefarious. I
would recommend discretion until we've had a chance
to talk to you though."
I sighed. This sounded weird, but there was no way in
hell I was going to last the rest of the day not knowing
what this was all about. "Okay. I'll take the car."
"Excellent. See you at four o'clock this afternoon, Mr.
Upton, I look forward to meeting you."
"Yeah," I said and hung up the phone.
"Hey Gerald," I said as I popped my head in his cubicle.
"If Gina pops by, could you tell her I opted for the rest
of my day off?"
Friday, 3:47 pm
As I emerged from the black sedan that had come to
pick me up, I saw three old white guys in thousand-
dollar suits standing at the foot of the stairs watching
me emerge. As I approached warily, the one on the left
reached out his hand and gave me a smile, "Mr. Upton?
I'm Karl Yunger, and these are my associates - William
Price and Roger VanCamp. Pleased to meet you."
I shook his hand, "Pleased to meet you too." took turns
shaking the hands of the other men who all looked at
me as if I was the return of Christ. I'd be surprised if
they couldn't tell I was confused by all this. "What's this
all about?"
"If you'll come with us, we'll go ahead and explain
everything," Roger said, turning to lead the way. The
rest of us followed with Karl striding along next to me.
We entered the building and went through metal
detectors. VanCamp held up his hand as the security
guard stationed at his desk stood up and started to
approach us, "It's alright LaDarius. He's with us." The
security guard nodded and returned to his seat.
Thank you for agreeing to come on such short notice,
Marcus," Karl said as we continued through the building.
"I'm aware of how confusing this all is for you."
You're not wrong. Until you called, I didn't know
anything about my birth father. His name... nothing.
How did you find me?"
"Your grandfather only became aware of who you
were eleven years ago. He understood that you had a
good life with a loving family and didn't want to disrupt
that, so he decided not to reach out to you, but he kept
up with you."
I blinked, "My grandpa kept tabs on me for eleven
years but never reached out?"
You have to understand, he was an eccentric man. A
workaholic.... it didn't leave a lot of time for family. He
seemed to see the situation as beneficial for everyone
involved."
"What happened to my father?" I asked.
"He died about a year after you were born in a boating
accident. He never married or had any other children
that we are aware of."
To go from having no information at all, to finding out
that my father and grandfather were both dead and
that they clearly left me with some sort of inheritance
was flooring. Especially on top of the fact that my
dating life had taken an upside-down turn less than 12
hours ago. I chewed on all that information as we
continued down the maze of austere hallways. We
finally arrived at a conference room where' several
other people in suits were already sitting at a large,
dark mahogany table. Papers and computers were
scattered across its surface.. it looked like they'd been
there for a while.
Karl indicated to a seat and took the one next to me,
"Thank you for joining us, Mr. Upton. As you know,
we're here to discuss the matter of your grandfather's
death. As I informed you, you are your father's only
child. About five years ago, your grandfather drafted a
new will that stated you were to inherit the entirety of
his estate. We've been tasked with -executing his will
upon his death."
"Congratulations, Mr. Upton. You've just inherited nine-
hundred thirty billion dollars."
To Be Continued...
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