Ames said he had warned Malcolm years earlier about irregular allocations inside a private family investment trust.

Money earmarked for the education and welfare of Nathaniel’s descendants had been moved into a reserve used to support a failing commercial project.

The trust had originally been established by Nathaniel’s grandmother, Ada Whitcomb, who insisted that future children should never depend entirely on the whims of the adults controlling the family businesses.

I had met Ada only twice.

She died shortly after our wedding, but I remembered her squeezing my hand at the reception and saying, “Build something with your own name on it, dear.”

The trust documents, Owen explained, did not automatically give our daughters ownership of a fortune just because they were descendants.