Beyond Eighteen(24)

“Hey, hey, come on now you two.” Calvin pushed between us before he slipped his arm around Camille and convinced her to go to the kitchen.

“Camille, we really need your help. Be the distraction Mom needs right now. Can you do that for me?” Cal asked.

Great, now Cal has swooped in to be the hero. It was his fault Camille found out about Buck in the first place. I watched as Cal coddled her and made her feel better about leaving us alone to talk. Dan walked over, leaned into her, and kissed her.

“I promise to fill you in later,” he whispered.

The three of us watched as she walked through the dining room and into the kitchen. It seemed like time stood still before Calvin turned to Dan.

“Alright, obviously you know something about Buck swindling fifteen percent of the company from our father. What can you tell us about it?” Calvin held out a small stack of papers in front of him.

Dan looked back through the dining room and into the kitchen before taking the papers from Calvin and leading us back to the foyer. He propped his foot on the small wooden bench by the front door and rested the stack of papers on his knee as he glanced through them. I noticed he didn’t take off his shoes. What the hell? I tried to remember if he’d ever taken off his shoes before.

“Okay, look, the thing is I knew about this. Frank didn’t want me to say anything to anyone. GP wasn’t quite as prepared as we thought, so when the new environmental regulations were enforced, we got hit pretty hard. Pile on bad investments and lower consumer consumption…your dad had no choice.”

“What do you mean? GP is a multimillion dollar company with advisors and lawyers. How could this happen?”

“Your dad did everything he could to avoid having to give any percent of the company to anyone outside the family. He figured Tanner and Trait could float the loan using fifteen percent of the company as collateral. Look, Max, your dad wasn’t proud of this. He didn’t like mixing business with personal favors, but Buck was able to help him.”

“What’s going to happen now that our dad is gone?” Calvin asked.

“Well, according to the agreement, Buckman Tanner has the contractual rights to absorb the fifteen percent plus an additional one percent of the company upon the death of your father. Buck has all legal right to pursue a limited sixteen percent ownership of GP.”

I felt a radiant pressure build across my chest and push up through my shoulders and neck. I hated hearing the words pouring from Dan’s mouth. How could he do this to us?

“So Buck will own more of our father’s company than any of us? How long have you known about this?” I growled through an exhale.

“About six months. Technically, your mother will own the controlling thirty-nine percent now that she absorbed the remaining fourteen percent left of your father’s shares. But yes, Buck will own sixteen percent. One percent more than any of us.”

“You’ve known about this and never said anything to us? What the fuck, Dan?” Calvin exploded.

“I couldn’t say anything, not even to Camille. Do you know how fucking hard it was to be a part of this family and hold in a secret like that? Not even able to tell your sister what your dad had done? Do you know how many times I wanted to tell you?” Dan held the papers out to Calvin. “I could only be here for a couple of days with the family. It was really hard for me. I hang out too long and I could feel myself wanting to tell you.” Dan looked down at the hardwood floor. I could tell he was ashamed, and yet it looked like a huge boulder had been lifted from his shoulders.

“I’m calling Gary. He has to be able to fix this,” Calvin barked.

“No. Hang on, Cal. Don’t call Dad’s lawyer yet,” I demanded.

“Come on, Max. I think we should look at all our options,” Cal answered.

“Well, considering Gary will be going over your father’s will tomorrow, it might not be a bad idea,” Dan said in a low grumble.

“Wait, I didn’t know we were going over the will tomorrow. Why hasn’t anyone told us?” Cal spouted.

“Gary pulled me aside at the service today, said that everything is in order and that he will be going over the will with us tomorrow morning.” Dan’s response was matter of fact.

I could see Cal was getting bent out of shape. Our father always kept him just close enough to help with the business, but far enough away not to mess anything up. So when Dan came into the picture and married Camille, he ended up being our father’s prodigy boy; the one he groomed to take over Goldstein Petroleum. No matter how much Cal tried to show our father he was worthy, something would always come along and fuck it up, proving Calvin’s inability to handle working with our father.