Meet the lawyers

After having done part of my editing work meant for Monday, I headed to my mom's place. I arrived a bit early, so she could tell me a little bit about everything that's going to happen.

"In essence, you just have to sign the documents. They sent me the preview, and it was just a bunch of pages going over what it means to be a caretaker for a company. The second part of these documents is basically just specifications for the company itself. Your father was rather generous with tenants and wants you to stay that way. This second part is also a legal framework to ensure you not earning enough money cannot be used to get you to step down. And that's already it, I think the lawyers will explain the rest."

The doorbells rang just in that moment. Two men in suits, nearing retirement, introduced themselves as the legal firm my father typically used for his business, he knew them on a personal level, but they weren't family friends, so mom and I didn't know them that well.

"Hello Mr. Goodman, Ms. Goodman. I'm glad we can sort things out now", they began. After they spread the mountain of papers I had to sign on the living room table, they began to address me again. "We know that this must be a big responsibility, Mr. Goodman. It would be understandable if you chose to decline, and legally you are allowed to, however it would put the company itself in jeopardy. Your father appointed you, and as we are well aware, this is a family business. That is also in part why we are. We want to urge you to sign these papers and become the caretaker. Legally it would be nigh impossible to maintain the company in one piece if you refused. And if it would stay together, it would realistically be bought by a real estate mega corporation that will squeeze every cent from their tenants' pockets."

"I had made up my mind already, I will sign the two documents."

"There are three, actually. We had received this only a few hours ago, so we couldn't send it for advanced notice. But it is a relatively simple addition. Should your father be incapable of leading the company for over 2 years, he will be able to make you actual owner if he so chooses. If he is incapable of running the company for over 5 years, ownership will transfer automatically to you, assuming you have not violated the motto of the company. In addition he has since gone to a notary and has made you the company heir in his will." "We assume this reflects worse prospects for his trial and a still deep division with your brother", the other lawyer explained.

I looked at the third part of the document, and it was literally just one page, with less than a handful lines, as well as multiple signatures from my father and a notary. I signed.

"Thank you Mr. Goodman. We will leave our business cards here. Due to our great business relationship with your father we want to help you as much as we can and will offer you cheaper legal fees for anything involving the company. We are familiar with it after all, so it's only fair that we get paid less for clients we have to work less for. For any further questions regarding your status as caretaker, don't hesitate to ask us or give us a call. Goodbye."

After they left, my mom said "They seem nice enough for lawyers." "Yeah, seems like they have a good heart and a mouth that knows which promises are legally binding."

Then, I remembered something. The money. I quickly went through the document again, it should have my salary somewhere. And there it was. 50k a month was a lot of income. It didn't seem right, my parents were rich, but not that rich.

"Mom, do you know if dad has his tax returns here?" "Yeah I'll quickly grab them."

A couple moments later, mom returned, folder in toe. "I'm curious, what did dad earn?" "Well, we had a shared bank account. He told me he earned 10k a month, after taxes we always had about five thousand per month." I expected this, as soon as I saw the number 50k a month. Where did the money go?

I dug into his tax records. Admittedly, not my strong suit, but I was certain I would be able to find all the money he spent as salaries through the company. And there it was, a row dedicated for 'CEO pay', as it was put here quite simply. And indeed, the money was 50k. About half went to taxes, as was all right and proper, but the 20k left from the rest were sent to a mysterious bank account.

"Well mom, the documents I just signed said that I would get 50k a month pre-taxes. And if you look here...", I pointed to the line at the tax returns, "the other 20k disappear in this other account somewhere."

Mom was fuming. "WHY DID I EVEN MARRY THIS MAN? FUCKING LIAR AND NOW EMBEZZLER, TOO" "Mom, please calm down. I'm gonna call the lawyers and ask them if they know anything about it. Maybe it has something to do with the business or has some other benign explanation." The call went about as what I expected.

"Hello, I'm sorry for calling so quickly after you have made the offer, but I read the documents and talked with my mom and there seems to be quite a big gap in the pay I am owed and the money that made it into the bank account of my parents."

"Am I understanding you correctly, that you assume that not all of your salary reaches your mother's bank account, as it is supposed to?"

"Yes, the tax records show that he transferred his salary to two bank accounts over the years, about 20% reached my parents' shared account, and I could not identify where the other 80% went to. Is there a way for me to stop this? I don't want 40k of company profits to disappear into a mysterious account every month."

"That... seems fairly troubling. We're no tax lawyers, you know, but pay of the CEO or now you as the caretaker is in regulated in the company statute. You can freely change that. However, to keep in compliance with the generosity of the company, we urge you to ensure you either reinvest these 40k a month somehow or just lower rents." Then the other lawyer butted in: "Sorry, I was a bit lost in thoughts, this is indeed highly unusual. Things like emergency funds and other ways to store money are listed elsewhere, as they for the good of the company. They are also regulated in a different parts of the company statute. Sadly even a good tax lawyer can't tell you what the account is for. I suggest you lower rents accordingly."

"Thank you so much for your advice, goodbye." "Gladly, Mr. Goodman."

As I put away my phone and turned around, I was horrified. I had never seen my mother so mad in my entire life, even when I stumbled into her favorite vase at the age of 16 simply because I wasn't looking. I deserved hell back then but she looked like she wanted to march to his hospital in person and make sure he wouldn't ever be able to leave the hospital bed. I was genuinely terrified. You usually don't see your mom this angry at my age, you see her several times a year, happy, at a family dinner.

I was too afraid to do anything for a bit and simply tried to hug her. I even gave her a kiss on the cheek. Her anger slowly turned into sadness. "I... My entire life has been a lie." She simply fell down on the sofa, grabbed the tissue box she had put on the couch table, and began ranting and crying again.

"Throughout everything... I always thought that even if he was cheating... He was still doing something nice to people... He might not have been faithful, but he was otherwise a good guy at heart. And now? Now I also have to learn that he kept four times the money we had on a separate account? Did he have four other families to feed? What did he even do with this money?" She began to cry. "I mean... sniff Look at this house, look at me. Think of your childhood. We already had it good. What the fuck was he doing? I don't even want **** or an apology at this point. I want answers to everything we know he hid from us. And maybe even everything we don't know yet."

Oh god. The idea of him having done even more was terrifying. In a way, I could feel for my mother. Who was the man we thought we knew?

We just spent several minutes in silence until I called the bank, shortly before they were about to close, and told them to halt the recurring payment. Apparently it was due the second Monday of each month, which in and of itself seemed suspicious as hell. I said goodbye to mom and returned home. Fuck, I had forgotten to ask her for jewelry. And Amber still hadn't responded. Weird.