Family Secrets

“I should break free by six-thirty.  I could meet you at seven o’clock.  How does the Bristol sound?”

“Sounds like you’ve got yourself a date, Counselor.”

Ben laughed.  “Of course I do, it is date night after all.”  Since they’d met, he’d spent Saturday night with her and with the kids, after they’d moved.  But, Friday had been Ben’s date night.  He’d just wasted three years spending it with the wrong women.  Now, he spent the night with Lane.  The unspoken rule was that it was their night alone.  Saturday was family night, but on Friday, he got her to himself.

Lane parked and opened the door.  She stepped out of the SUV completely oblivious to the stares she received.  She was over six feet tall in her heels and there was the impression that she was completely color coordinated from the tips of her cream and black shoes to her purse, her dress, and her SUV, which was cream, colored with black pin stripes.  She’d left her hair down and it hung loosely around her shoulders.  She approached the double carved wooden doors and thought nothing of the man who stepped forward to open one of them for her.  It was twelve-fifteen so she hadn’t expected to see Babs waiting near the bar.

She leaned close to the bartender.  “Enzo, we’re meeting Uncle Vi

Lane motioned to Babs.  “Papa, this is my friend Mrs. Edwards.  Babs, this is Dante Bellini.”

Mr. Bellini took Babs’ hand and kissed her knuckles. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Edwards.”  He took Lane’s hand and tucked it in the crook of his arm as he escorted the women toward the Board Room.

Lane whispered to him, “We’re meeting Uncle Vi

“Don’t worry, Bambina.  The Board Room isn’t crowded today and I’ll seat you in the corner.”

Much to Lane’s surprise, there was no one in the Board Room.  She and Babs were seated in the corner and glasses of water were quickly placed before them.  A waiter took drink orders.   Both ordered iced tea.  When the waiter returned with warm bread, he poured olive oil on a plate, and added herbs.

Babs explained the finer details of trusts so that Lane could now decide what to do.  She could take distributions from the trust, dissolve it completely, keep it as is, or convert all or a portion into a charitable trust.

It was still a lot to take in.  Lane remembered Ben said that some people would be happy to find they had ten million dollars.  Yes, she supposed some people would be, but this was going to take a lot of thought.  A man, now deceased, set up the trust, to do what, ease his conscience about the damage his son had done to her family. Uncle Vi

Lane made the introductions between Vi

The three of them chatted as they enjoyed linguine.  Why had Uncle Vi

Just before two o’clock, Babs said she had a meeting and needed to leave.  For the second day in a row, Lane found herself sitting at a table in Bellini’s alone with one of the secretive Luciano twins.

Vi

“Ben?”

“Hey Red, how was lunch?”

“I’m still sort of at lunch.  Babs left half an hour or so ago, but I’m still here with Uncle Vi

“I tried to warn you about my uncles yesterday.  They’ll charm the sox off you if you aren’t careful. At least Vi

Lane laughed.  “There’s no need to be jealous.  You’re the only tall good looking Italian lawyer I’m interested in.”

“You have no idea how happy that makes me.  Listen, it looks like I’m going to finish up here much earlier than I thought.  There’s something I want to talk about and I was hoping I could pick you up at your office around five-thirty.”

“Okay, that fits with my package pickup plan.”  She wanted to talk with him too. She needed to figure out a way to keep the kids safe.

Chapter 15

All families have secrets

Lane managed to get out of another round of car shopping with Uncle Vi

Like every place in the USA, summer is prime road construction time in Kansas City.  Lane shook her head, sometimes no matter where she wanted to go; it felt like she couldn’t get there from where ever she started.  It was just after five o’clock and traffic was at a standstill as she approached the College exit and headed toward the office.

Telco had a policy in the summer, which allowed employees to work 30 minutes extra Monday through Thursday and then leave the office at 3:00 on Fridays.  Most employees took advantage so they could get on the road toward their lake house destinations early Friday afternoon, so she wasn’t surprised to find the parking lot almost empty.  Still she parked at the curb.  After all, she was just going to take the elevator to the fifth floor, unlock her office, and grab the package.  She’d park when Ben got there so they could use her ID to get them both into the underground lot.

She was surprised that there was no one at the guard station as she entered, but she sca

She unlocked the door to her office and was greeted with the fragrance of roses.  She smiled.  The roses Ben had sent on Tuesday were still beautiful.  She’d better take them home.  They wouldn’t last through the weekend.

The package from Evie was sitting on her desk along with a note from Meg.  She read the note.  “I’d have taken your roses home myself except I knew you were coming in today and thought you’d want to have them with you.” Once again, she and Meg were on the same page.  There was no way she was going to be able to carry the roses and the package.