Chapter 8 - Thomas’s Choice
Thomas did not want the money.
At least not at first.
Claire sent him Charles’s video through his attorney.
He called that evening.
“I told you I don’t want Ashford money.”
“This is not Eleanor’s money.”
“It came from Charles.”
“Yes.”
“A man who knew I existed and let me disappear.”
Claire did not defend Charles.
“That’s true.”
“He gave Nathan everything.”
“Also true.”
“And now I’m supposed to be moved because he planned twenty million dollars after decades of cowardice?”
“No.”
Thomas went quiet.
Claire continued:
“You’re supposed to have the information and decide for yourself.”
That changed the conversation.
Thomas exhaled.
“You really were married to Nathan.”
“Why?”
“He started sounding like that near the end.”
Claire’s throat tightened.
Thomas agreed to review the trust with independent counsel.
No decision yet.
Meanwhile Eleanor changed strategies.
Her attorneys stopped arguing Lily was unrelated to Nathan.
Instead they argued Claire had violated estate procedures by obtaining genetic information and private files.
Maya called the claims mostly distraction.
More important was Eleanor’s corporate move.
She scheduled a board vote on the oncology division sale.
If Lily’s voting shares were tied up in litigation, Eleanor hoped to exclude them temporarily.
Claire sought recognition as executor and trustee authorized to vote Nathan’s shares pending final distribution.
The company’s bylaws made the issue complicated.
Victor held the swing vote.
Claire confronted him.
“You said the sale is separate.”
“It is.”
“It isn’t anymore.”
Victor looked exhausted.
“The offer is financially strong.”
“Why sell?”
“Oncology margins have fallen.”
“Charles built the company around cancer research.”
“Charles is dead.”
The bluntness hurt.
Nathan had opposed the sale because the division’s research pipeline included treatments unlikely to produce fast profits but potentially significant clinical value.
Claire was not a scientist.
She refused to pretend she knew whether keeping it was wise.
She hired independent advisers.
That enraged Eleanor.
“You’re wasting estate money.”
Claire answered:
“I’m doing due diligence.”
“You know nothing about this company.”
“Correct.”
The admission seemed to confuse her.
Claire continued:
“That’s why I’m asking people who do.”
Nathan’s shares did not entitle Claire to become omniscient.
They created responsibility.
The independent analysis found the oncology division was underperforming but possessed two promising early-stage therapies.
The buyer planned to discontinue one program immediately.
One therapy targeted a rare pediatric cancer.
Claire remembered Charles.
Nathan.
Hospitals.
Genetics.
Children becoming numbers in adult decisions.
But sentiment could not be the only criterion.
Advisers proposed an alternative.
Spin off the oncology division into an independent company, raise outside capital, and preserve research while reducing burden on Ashford Biologics.
It carried risk.
But it was viable.
Claire presented the plan to the board.
Eleanor dismissed it.
“You’re turning grief into strategy.”
Claire looked at her.
“And you’re turning strategy into inheritance fraud.”
The room went silent.
Eleanor’s attorneys objected.
Claire did not need to say more.
Victor surprised everyone.
He supported further evaluation of the spin-off.
The sale vote was postponed.
Eleanor’s face showed exactly what she had feared.
Not losing money.
Losing command.
After the meeting, she confronted Victor privately.
Claire accidentally overheard part through an open conference-room door.
“You owe me.”
Victor answered:
“I’ve spent forty years paying for what we did.”
“You would have had nothing without Charles.”
“Neither would you.”
“Thomas will destroy everything.”
“No. The truth will change things. That is not the same.”
Claire walked away before they saw her.
Victor was changing too.
Perhaps.
She had stopped granting redemption in advance.
Two weeks later, forensic accountants found a payment from Charles’s estate three years earlier.
Twenty million dollars had been transferred shortly before final probate distribution.
Not to Thomas.
To an investment vehicle controlled by Eleanor.
Claire stared.
The amount matched Charles’s intended Thomas fund exactly.
Maya leaned forward.
“If we can connect this transaction to the missing trust—”
“Eleanor took it.”
“Potentially.”
Claire called Thomas.
He answered reluctantly.
“What now?”
“Remember the money you don’t want?”
He sighed.
“Yes.”
“Eleanor may have taken it.”
Silence.
Then his voice changed.
Not greedy.
Wounded.
“She took it?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Thomas laughed once.
A bitter sound.
“Of course.”
For the first time, he asked:
“How much control does she still have?”
Claire understood the question was no longer financial.
Thomas had spent his life walking away.
Eleanor interpreted absence as victory.
Maybe he was tired of letting her.
“What are you thinking?”
Thomas answered:
May you like
“I think I want to come to New York.”
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