Any Way You Slice It

"Synclare, we're creating our own fund and I'd like you to get in on the ground floor with us. I'll be managing it myself and it will be diverse and fairly middle of the road as far as aggressive growth is concerned. We'll have all of it sorted and ready within six months."

"Thank you for thinking of me, Sir, but I'm pretty happy with what my portfolio is doing right now. I'm not sure I want to change anything."

"Well, young lady, Trey has already seen the potential in it and will be taking advantage. We already manage all of Trey's money and he has had quite a nice return over the years."

"That's true, honey. Dad and grandfather are geniuses with the market," Trey said.

Trey didn't push me into but I agreed to give them a try.

"I tell you what, Sir. I'll invest some money with you and if you show me what you can do is better than what I have, I'll invest in your new fund."

"Excellent, Synclare. You're a smart woman and are making the right decision."

I gave him 200k to show me what he could do with it and he did. He blew my account manager away. I moved most of my money into his care and invested heavily in their new fund. My account manager warned me not to do it. He said that many in the field didn't believe they could make such gains as they did. I brushed it off since I'd seen the gains first hand.

I had to see Bob the Deuce more as time went on and he was becoming a real ass. When Richard graduated and started working for him, he calmed some, but he was still an ass and I tried to avoid him. That wasn't too difficult as Trey avoided him as well since his mother passed. They didn't golf together anymore.

***

Trey proposed to me on our first anniversary, which was Valentine's Day. I accepted and we were married on a rainy August afternoon eighteen months later.

Our parents were thrilled and we gave them a grandchild just about a year later—we named him Jonathon. Trey's dad was pissed about him not being named Robert, but we didn't care. Trey's grandfather passed away just before John was born and his father became almost unbearable. He would snap and get angry for no reason and he was drinking heavily. Trey blamed pressure from work, but conceded that his father was always an ass.

***

I sold my business and became a full-time mom. Trey's restaurants were doing very well and he was about to open a third. It would be a comfort food style place and he had a vision of franchising it if it did well.

Deuce and Richard were making me a nice return on my money, so I gave Trey the proceeds from my business sale as a start-up investment for his new restaurant. I became his partner.

Life couldn't have been any better until it all blew up.

The world was hit with a new pandemic and the stock market crashed when the lockdowns started. As had happened with the Coronavirus, restaurants were shut down. Trey paid his employees for as long as he could, but the businesses ran out of cash. Rent still had to be paid on the buildings and he paid out of pocket for that hoping that they would re-open soon.

The new pandemic was worse than Covid and it was a year into lockdown with no relief in sight when Trey closed the restaurants permanently. He couldn't continue to pay high rents with no money coming in. He hadn't even opened the third restaurant when it hit and ended that project with a huge loss.

It would turn out that Trey's business empire failing wasn't even the worst of our problems.

***

I came home from the store with John in tow and found Trey sitting in our living room with a bottle of scotch.

"Honey, don't you think it's a little early for scotch?"

He looked at me and took a swig from the bottle.

"No. No, I don't think it's too early at all," he said.

A chill went through me and I took a sleeping John up to his bed. I slowly walked downstairs and saw Trey look at his phone and throw it against the wall.

"Trey, you're scaring me. What's happened?"

"My wonderful father and brother were just taken into custody by the FBI."

"Oh my god! What's going on?"

I sat next to him and he didn't look at me. He stared straight ahead and said, "My grandfather created a scam, continued by my father. The money is gone, the gains were never real. Our accounts were fake. All of the money invested was kept in my father's personal accounts. They moved money around as needed, sent out false statements, and when the market crashed they lost so much, it couldn't be hidden any longer. It was all a shell game."

"How is that possible?" I asked in shock.

"The false statements. He had a team of people whose sole job was to make false market activity reports. We both saw ours. Neither of us knew all that was really there was our original investment plus some interest."

"All of those gains were faked?" I asked.

"Yes. When people closed their accounts or took distributions, he simply gave them their money out of his personal accounts. It blew up when the market crashed and people wanted to move their money to safer investments. He couldn't possibly show gains during a market crash and he didn't have the amount of the balances of the fraudulent accounts. He paid out hundreds of millions wiping out his personal accounts to try and hide what he had done."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They were his family. How could they screw us?

"When Richard joined, to his credit, he convinced my father to try to back down the fraud and develop real gains for us suckers. Richard didn't think the scam could last and he was right. The problem was, Richard wasn't very good and the high-risk trading he did blew up in their faces when the virus hit."

"How much money do we have left," I asked as tears fell down my cheeks.

"It's all gone. All we have left is what you didn't invest with him. What was it, a few grand in CD's?"

Holy shit.

I said, "Don't worry, Trey. We'll be okay. We can get jobs. We can borrow from my parents..."

"No!" He shouted, scaring me. "We will not live off your parents. I didn't spend the last ten years avoiding my family's wealth and going it on my own, to crawl and grovel for your father's money now. I'll figure something out. My attorney is working on getting some of what my father and brother have left in their personal accounts. There are still millions there."

I knew that was a long shot. The government most likely froze or seized their assets.

I kissed his cheek and whispered, "I love you, Bobby."

Not asking my parents for help if we needed it was stupid, foolish pride. My father didn't invest with Trey's family and as a result, didn't get caught up in the scheme. He lost a lot in the crash, but he still had millions liquid and many more millions in investments.

I looked and saw that we also had ten thousand in a money market account I kept for emergencies. I figured we'd be okay until we found work, but I was still worried about bills for the short term, let alone the long term.

***

Finding jobs was not as easy as we thought. The country was still on lockdown and would be for the foreseeable future. The fifteen percent death rate and ease of transmission of the new virus had the country on pins and needles. As it was with COVID, Congress was also playing games with stimulus money.

We had mortgage relief, but car companies and credit card companies still wanted their money. Utility bills and groceries cost money and the lawyer ate up the rest.

Even though we had plenty of money before the crash, interest rates were so low, we took advantage of them and kept our money invested. We were supposed to be making a larger return by financing our major purchases and keeping our money invested. Yeah, a great idea that turned out to be.

Our lawsuit against his father was dismissed as the judge said we needed to be part of the class-action lawsuit along with the other victims. That case would take over a year to be resolved.

We were screwed.

***

"How bad is it?" My dad asked.

John and I went for a visit a few months into our demise.

"Total loss. We had everything with them. We trusted them completely."

"Of course, you did. They are his family. You couldn't have known what they were doing. Don't worry about a thing, I'll help you guys for as long as you need."

"Thanks, Dad, but Trey won't allow me to accept help from you. We have a few thousand left and are squeaking by, but it's going to get ugly. We've had no luck with finding jobs and the class action suit for Bob's assets won't be in court for months."

"That's stupid, Syn. I'm giving you money. Your husband can suck it up and deal with it."

"Let me keep working on him, Dad. Once the money is completely gone, he'll have to let you help us."

He shrugged his shoulders and agreed.

***

The first late payment notice came a month later. It was for the Mercedes I drove. It was also our largest non-mortgage payment.

"I never in a million years thought I wouldn't be able to pay my bills," Trey said as we ate dinner.

"Honey, with one phone call we can be out of this mess and have no worries."

"NO!" He shouted, slamming his hand into the table. He scared John into tears.

Trey looked at John horrified and walked out of the room.

I took a few minutes to settle John down and then I went to find Trey.

He was sitting in his den, in the dark.

"Trey, I'm going to see my father. I am going to accept the money he is offering and I am going to get us out of trouble."

He spun his chair around to look at me.

"I said no."

"Trey, you're being stupid and your pride is getting in the way of your common sense. Let my father help us until this is over. If you say no again, I'm walking out the door with John and I'm not coming back."

He looked at me so hard, I felt his glare.

"No."

I turned and walked out of the room. I packed a bag for myself and a bag for John and loaded the car. When I came back inside, Trey was holding the sleeping John, crying.

He looked up at me and said, "All my life I've hated my family's money. It caused me nothing but problems when I was a kid."

He paused and I waited for him to continue. Whatever he was going to tell me must have been very difficult. He never spoke of his childhood.

"This area was all rural back then and much of it was farmland. There was only one school and the kids relentlessly bullied me. I wasn't a mean kid and I didn't flaunt my father's money, but I guess when your mom picks you up in the top of the line Mercedes, kids notice."

He kissed John's head and sighed.

"One year, our baseball team won a state tournament and we got to go to Georgia for the regional. The bad thing about that was that we all had to pay our way. The team was just a bunch of farmer's kids or factory worker's kids. They didn't have enough money to pay for a couple of nights in a hotel or to take time off of work. We couldn't scrounge enough kids to put half a team on the field. The coach begged my rich dad to sponsor the team and the asshole said no."

He paused and looked out the window, stroking John's hair gently.

"I was jumped after school the next day. They put me in the hospital because of my father. His response to that was to send me to a boarding school. I didn't even know those existed. I thought they were just stories parents told their kids to keep them in line."

I didn't speak to my father for five years, until the day I graduated high school and told him I wasn't going to get a degree in business and follow in his gold plated footprints. I was told him I was going to culinary school. You'd have thought I punched him in the stomach."

He shook his head and kissed John again.

"Syn, I'm so sorry. My failure is total and complete. I've lost everything we worked so hard for and now I'm losing you. I can't take it, please don't go, I don't know what I'll do without you."

I watched as he hugged our son. John woke up and said, "Dada."

Trey smiled and told him that he loved him.

John being oblivious to the drama started to wiggle and push to be let down. I picked him up, smelled him and went to change his diaper. I didn't know what to say to Trey. I felt so bad for him, I couldn't think of anything to say to offer him comfort. To show him everything would be alright, I wasn't sure it would be.

"Trey," I said with my back to him. "I love you, but this is killing you. We have to accept my father's money and take these burdens off of you. Your father and brother blowing millions is not your fault. It is on them alone. Selling my business was our decision together. The restaurants closing isn't on you either. It's the damn virus. Nothing that has happened to us is your fault. I'm begging you, please make the right decision for your family, not your pride."

I felt him wrap his arms around me as he said, "I will go talk with your father. It's my responsibility and I'll man up to it."

I picked John up and handed him back to Trey. "We'll go together, we're a team."

***

The next day, Trey was like a dead man walking as we walked into my parents' home.

My mom was playing with John as Trey and I sat in my dad's den. Trey was nervous and sweating, he looked sick.

Trey said, "Steven, as you know we're..."

"Hang on, Bobby. I have some things to talk with you two about."

Trey looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. I had no idea what my dad wanted to talk about.

"Kids, your mother and I are planning on traveling around Europe for a few months after this pandemic blows over. We wanted to do some things with your inheritance in case something happens to us. I was talking with some good money men and it looks like we found a new loophole to help avoid a whole bunch of estate taxes for you."

"Dad, that's silly. Nothing is going to happen to you," I said.

He smirked at me and said, "Maybe, probably. Nonetheless, I'm giving you and your brother a large part of your inheritance now. Your mom and I will still have plenty to live on and you'll get what's left of that when we're gone."

It was then that I understood what he was doing and I wanted to hug him and thank him, but I played along.

"Any questions? No? Good. Now, what did you kids want to talk to me about?" He asked with a wide grin.

"Um, nothing I guess," Trey said. "Thank you, Steven."

My dad walked around his desk and shook Trey's hand.

"Son, I couldn't ask for a better husband for my daughter or father for my grandchildren. I love you both, now let's have some lunch, hm?"

Trey stood to leave and I said, "Honey, I'll be right there. I have a question for my dad."

He nodded and left us, still looking shell-shocked.

"Thank you, Dad. The way you handled this was perfect. He's been too hard on himself over our problems. I was leaving him yesterday and had my bags in the car before he finally agreed to accept your help. His pride is very badly bruised right now."

"He's a good man, Syn. It's hard for a man like him to fail. It's even harder for him to ask for help. Love him out of this depression. He needs you now more than ever."

"Thank you, Dad. I love you."

***

The amount of money my dad gave us was incredible. We'd never have to work another day in our lives and we'd still never be able to spend it all.

We decided to restart the plans for the new restaurant and since nothing had happened with the restaurants that he closed, we would reopen them after the pandemic ended. We bought the buildings instead of paying rent on them.

A byproduct of the money was Trey being happy again. With no more financial worries, he was back to his old self and our bedroom activities picked up. It wasn't two months before I was pregnant again.

They developed a vaccine and businesses reopened. It seemed that people were so happy to be able to go out again, business boomed and the new restaurant was an immediate success.

On a sunny May morning, our daughter Stephanie was born. Trey immediately nicknamed her Stevie. I thought it was a lovely tribute to my father, Steven, and was happy to use it as well.

My parents flew back from their European trip and my dad caught some dust in his eye when he heard Stevie's name the first time.

While we were in the hospital, Trey's father and brother were sentenced to lengthy prison time. The class-action lawsuit was already won and they had to forfeit their assets. We didn't accept our portion of it and let it get split among the other parties. It wasn't near what was lost, but it was something. They found a hidden fifty million in offshore accounts that was also split.

Trey's father did not explain what they did or why and Trey made headlines for spitting at his father at the trial. I thought it was below him but it made him feel better. It's gonna be a great scene in the movie they are making about the scandal.

Trey's brother wrote him a letter that Trey refused to read. I found it in the garbage and read it. He apologized and begged Trey and I for forgiveness. He wrote about how he tried to make the company legit but failed. He also told Trey that shortly before it blew up he was going to give us our money but their father forbid it. He was worried Trey would call the SEC and FBI.

He was right, we would've turned them in.

***

We stood over our sleeping Stevie, wrapped in each other's arms. He kissed me and said, "I can't believe I almost lost you."

I hugged him tightly and said, "Even if I'd have left, you'd have done the right thing and got me back."

"Oh, I would have?"

"Yeah, you had to."

"Why? Because of John?"

"Partly John," I said.

"Why else?"

"Because you still have that slice we need to get rid of."

He laughed and we kissed. Life wasn't perfect, but it sure was interesting.