The Love Of Money - S01 E05

2 weeks ago

The Love Of Money - S01 E05

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 5

"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...