Chapter 4 - The Vultures Return
News of the trust's release traveled through the legal and financial circles of Seattle with the speed of a brushfire.
Sarah was the first to hear of it,
a tip from a colleague at the probate court that a massive,
dormant trust under the name Dorsey had just been activated.
She immediately called Blake,
and within an hour,
the two successful children were huddled in Blake’s office,
their faces pale with a mixture of greed and panic.
"Two million?"
Blake hissed,
pacing the floor.
"How could Dad have two million dollars and never tell us?
Think of what I could have done with that capital ten years ago."
Sarah looked at the foreclosure notice Blake had tossed in the trash,
now realizing it was the very key that had unlocked the fortune.
"We made a mistake,
Blake,"
she said,
her mind already calculating the damages to her reputation.
"If Mom has that kind of money,
she won't forget how we treated her last night.
We need to get to Toby’s place before she does something drastic."
They arrived at Toby’s apartment in Blake’s luxury SUV,
parking on the curb like two intruders from another world.
They climbed the stairs,
the smell of the hallway making Sarah wrinkle her nose,
and pounded on the door with an urgency that was far different from their previous dismissals.
Marlene opened the door,
holding a cup of coffee,
and looked at them with a calm that unnerved them.
"Mom!
Oh,
thank God we found you,"
Sarah cried,
stepping into the small room and trying to pull Marlene into a hug.
"We’ve been so worried!
Blake and I realized that we were so stressed last night that we weren't thinking clearly.
We’ve already prepared the guest room for you,
and we want to take you out to a celebratory dinner."
Blake nodded vigorously,
his eyes darting around the small room as if he were looking for the tin box.
"That’s right,
Mom.
Celeste was so upset that you left.
We want to help you manage the trust,
ensure it’s invested properly in some of my new developments.
We’re family,
after all."
Marlene stepped back,
detaching herself from Sarah’s grasp,
and looked at them both with a profound sense of disappointment.
"You’ve been worried?"
she asked,
her voice quiet and lethal.
"You were worried when you gave me forty dollars and told me to find a motel?
You were worried when you told me you were too busy with a thirty-million-dollar project to give me a couch to sleep on?"
"Mom,
you don't understand the pressure we're under—"
Blake started,
but he was interrupted by the sound of the door opening.
Toby walked in,
still in his work boots,
carrying a bag of groceries he had bought with his meager earnings.
He stopped when he saw his siblings,
his face hardening into a mask of pure disgust.
"What are you two doing here?"
Toby demanded,
stepping between them and Marlene.
"I thought you had investors to talk to.
I thought you had depositions."
"Toby,
stay out of this,"
Sarah snapped.
"This is about the family estate.
Mom has a trust that needs professional management,
not the advice of a construction worker."
Marlene looked at Toby,
the man who had given her his only bed without knowing she had a penny to her name,
and then she looked at Blake and Sarah,
the children who only wanted her now that she was a prize.
"I’ve already made a decision about the management of the trust,"
Marlene said,
May you like
walking to the table and picking up a legal document.
"And I think you’re both going to find it very interesting."
