ManBeast - Book 1: A Kingdom of Predators

Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

Frankie folded his hands on the table in front of him after straightening his neck tie; Vincent frowned deeply and turned his chair towards Marjorie: "Come again, Marj? I'm not following," he huffed tiredly. Marjorie adjusted her glasses before addressing Vincent. "I'll explain in entirety, Vinny. This is going to take some break down, so I'm going to ask the parliamentarian to transcribe a summary of what I'm going to say. I'll be sure to give wide berth in my explanation" she stated.

Frankie leaned in slightly in his chair as Marjorie stopped talking: "These sound like baseless accusations, Marjorie. I expect more from you; Theodore tainted your better judgements and common sense?" Theodore wheeled around in his chair, sporting a devilish grin across his face. "Oho, you've done it this time, Francis. I knew something is off when you stood up for Julius at his presentation; you've never stuck your neck out for anyone if it didn't benefit you directly. At first, I thought it was just because you and him and some sort of weird "Beast-Men code" that prompted you to act as you did, but this is faaaar better. I've been watching you, my friend. Sounds like my hunch paid off, Marjorie," he stated deviously.

Marjorie nodded back bearing a grim face: "In fact, it did, Theodore." Marjorie then stood up from the table, walked over to the parliamentarian's desk, and gave her a small flash drive to insert into her desktop computer. After a second, the computer indicated the flash drive was installed, giving the parliamentarian access. She clicked only folder on the drive open, revealing a PDF file, containing scanned documents and pictures.

The first picture presented was of a public obituary, speaking to the death of Stephan Jones. "According to this public obituary, Stephan Jones was an outside investor that helped save this firm and others during an economic recession, and was killed in a botched robbery attempt. The housing bubble during that time before his death rocked the tri-county area, causing many businesses to foreclose," she asserted.

Raymond, who was turned around and facing the main screen, nodded and waved Marjorie to continue on: "I remember him; funny guy, rather succinct and clever, talented at the piano too." Marjorie reassumed her presentation: "Many of us only became partners thereafter; Raymond and Diedre, the most senior among us, remember how that affected the firm. Moving on though, this Stephan Jones character apparently made a sizeable contribution to the firm in exchange for earning a limited partnership interest; he then wrote his off his future gains from firm dividends into a protective support trust. I looked into that as well; the trust beneficiaries are listed as "the issue of Stephan J. Jones", and lists a woman named "Juliana Centenno" as the trustee," Marjorie said, switching photos on screen with the laser clicker. "Essentially, Stephan was so well off in his own right, that the money he was making from the firm didn't matter; he put it all into savings for his family," she spoke as images flashed across the screen, landing on a photo of a woman.

The name "Juliana Centenno" underneath the scanned image made Frankie stiffen up slightly; the sound of her name brought back conflicting feelings of nostalgia long forgotten. The second image on screen was split; one image was of the trust deed itself, and the other was the old faded image of a young lightly caramel-complexioned woman, whose hairstyle, smile, and eyes resembled Jules. "This woman, Juliana Centenno, is listed in a divorce decree within the family court records," said Marjorie, as she clicked a third image of the decree onto the screen. "Her ex-husband? None other than Stephan Jones, the former partner. Stephan's issue? According to the decree, he had two listed children: Josephine S. Jones, and our own Julius P. Jones. Turns out that after the divorce, Juliana changed her name back and won sole custody over the children, but Stephan nonetheless made her the trustee, and set the trust so that his children would only get unfettered access if/when they achieved the age of 21. Didn't matter apparently, as Stephan was killed when both children were still fairly young, and Juliana passed from cancer only three years ago, passing the totality of the trust interest and principal to the children via intestate succession. Josephine and Julius inherited the entirety of Stephan's estate without hiccup or concern, as neither Stephan or Juliana had a will that spoke to the trust," She said, clicking an image of the probate declaration onto screen.