Chapter 5 - The Missing Fifteen Percent
Samuel Carter’s old lawsuit looked like obvious answer.
Thomas Avery had allegedly promised him 15%.
If Charles helped suppress claim, Brooke might be seeking proof.
But Rachel obtained sealed settlement through legal process.
Samuel had received $1.7 million.
In exchange, he released ownership claims.
So Brooke had no current right to 15%.
Then Amanda found handwritten letter from Thomas:
Sam deserves credit. Charles does not.
Why?
Company history showed financial crisis in 1999.
Samuel discovered supplier fraud and saved business millions.
Charles then provided emergency financing.
Public company story credited Charles as savior.
Thomas resented it.
Then a second note:
If Charles converts the loan again, I’m done.
Again?
Rachel dug.
Charles had lent company $3 million.
Loan agreement included conversion rights.
He could turn debt into equity if default.
Thomas claimed Charles manipulated covenant to trigger default.
Potential hostile takeover.
Before it happened, Thomas moved 51% into Avery trust.
Protection.
Then why make Charles trustee later?
He didn't.
That was another lie.
Original successor trustee:
Margaret Lane.
Thomas’s attorney.
Charles appeared as “business custodian,” not trustee.
After Thomas died, Charles filed documents making himself acting trustee during Margaret’s illness.
Margaret died shortly afterward.
No one challenged.
Then Charles controlled Amanda’s trust.
Possibly improperly.
Richard inherited administration.
Now theft might be control, not money.
Then Rachel found 2008 ledger.
Avery trust held 31% of Whitman Development.
How?
After Avery Precision sale, Thomas reinvested proceeds into Charles’s growing real estate company.
Quietly.
So Amanda’s trust may have owned nearly one-third of Richard’s family business.
Richard claimed he never knew percentage.
Could that be true?
Corporate cap table showed Avery stake under nominee entity.
Richard might reasonably think it belonged outside investor.
Then Brooke discovered.
She used knowledge to pressure him.
“Divorce Amanda,” Brooke had said, according to messages Richard finally surrendered, “before she realizes she can take the company.”
Richard replied:
SHE WOULD NEVER DO THAT.
Brooke:
You don't know what she becomes when she finds out.
Amanda stared.
Brooke had been poisoning Richard against a version of Amanda that didn't exist.
But Richard still chose affair.
Still lied.
Then one message was stranger:
BROOKE: Tyler deserves what Ethan has.
RICHARD: This has nothing to do with the boys.
BROOKE: It has everything to do with them.
Why would Tyler have claim through Samuel?
Maybe Brooke believed Carter family ownership passed to Tyler.
Then DNA/genealogy? Avoid unnecessary secret paternity unless seeded. Better financial.
Samuel Carter’s settlement included deferred employee participation certificate.
Beneficiary upon his death:
Brooke.
Current estimated value:
$2.6 million.
She had money.
Not enough to explain house.
Then Amanda found one transaction.
Richard had transferred $2.6 million exactly into an escrow account four months earlier.
Recipient:
Brooke Carter.
The same month affair began.
Amanda looked at Richard.
“You paid your mistress exactly what my father’s company owed her father?”
Richard whispered:
“It wasn't payment for the affair.”
“What was it?”
“She was blackmailing me.”
“With what?”
May you like
Richard looked toward the family photograph.
“With a copy of something she said was inside that safe.”
