Chapter 9 — The Trust They Took

Eight months earlier, while preparing the sale of my software platform, Elias’s firm had run a complete review of my financial history — old loans, student debt, trust documents, anything that might create a future ownership dispute.

One irregularity led to another.

My paternal grandfather had created a trust for me when I was a child. When I turned eighteen, it should have held enough to cover college and basic living costs.

My parents told me the investments had been destroyed in a market downturn. I believed them. I borrowed for school. I worked evenings in the university technology lab and spent weekends stocking grocery shelves.

Meanwhile, Sydney attended a private college without debt. She studied abroad twice. For her twenty-first birthday, my parents gave her a red sports car.

According to Elias’s investigation, my trust had never collapsed. Its investments had grown. My parents had withdrawn nearly four hundred thousand dollars using authorization forms that did not carry my genuine signature.