Godsend

"Good enough."

"David, what will it take to get you to forgive me?"

"I don't know if there's anything." He hung up.

I was flabbergasted. I went to the mini-bar, took another whisky and downed it. I checked the time in Singapore with Google and made another phone call.

"Allison, my lovely..."

"Hey, Uncle Rahul, how are you?"

"Fine, fine, wonderful. How's my favorite niece?"

"Not so great."

"Oh dear. Anything I can help with?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Remember Vestry Capital?"

"Sure. That's one of your smaller funds, that's doing very well. Isn't your husband running it?"

"Bingo. It's looking at the acquisition of the assets of Darcy Pierce Industries, a business in Chapter Seven." I took a deep breath before continuing. "Send word down the chain that Vestry is to complete the acquisition within three days. My husband is to relocate to the plant and be responsible for getting it running and profitable."

"Even if you will lose money on it?"

"It will be pocket change to Vestry, and Vestry is pocket change to me. I'm sorry to say this is personal."

"Well on one hand I'm glad to see you taking an interest in your trust. On the other hand, I'm not so happy that you're using your wealth to deal with personal issues. Mind you, people with money use it to buy things they want, and that's what you're doing. I presume you're still maintaining secrecy; that your husband doesn't know you own Vestry Capital."

"I've been living a very happy life in a comfortable, normal family. I don't want to spoil it. I especially don't want to ruin my children by letting them know that they, their children and grandchildren won't ever have to work a day in their life to live comfortably. I don't want my husband to cower in front of my wealth. I want to be his equal, not his master. On the other hand, I refuse to cower in front of his judgement. I did something terrible and I hope he'll forgive me. This little maneuver is to temper his self-righteous indignation."

"Allie, my dearest... One day you're going to have to take over running your empire. Why don't you hop on a plane and come stay with us for a few days? Your aunt would be thrilled to see you."

"How is Anika?"

"Wonderful. We really enjoyed visiting you and your family last year. I'm going to text you the contact information for your aviation company; they'll send you a plane. It sounds like you could use a break."

"I don't know, Rahul. It's forty hours in the air, just for a short visit. Let me think about it. In the meantime, could you pass my directive through the chain?"

"I'll do that, dear. Take care of yourself."

"You're a godsend, Uncle." I flopped backward onto my bed. Maybe I should go visit my family in Singapore. It was a long time since I had been to my business headquarters, from where Uncle Rahul kept on multiplying my wealth. Perhaps I should take my children and relocate there; I could easily arrange that David would never find us. But what had I said to Pierce about not causing my husband pain? I looked at the two empty mini-bottles of whisky. What the hell. I pulled out my phone and made another call. "Hey, Scott..."