The Beast of Stornoway

Chapter 74: Van

It had been a week since the trip to Spain and Van was so glad to be back at the manor. He thought it would be hard to be around Amani after what had happened, but it wasn't. If anything, he felt closer to her now. She made it so easy to be friends. A slight smile tugged at his lips. She was so eager to get started on her quest to find something damaging on Rebecca. She'd even asked to see the legal documents of his mother's ownership of Blarcum Industries. He figured it wouldn't hurt to let her look at them. She might find something he hadn't.

Van flipped through the third quarter report of his personal finance accounts while his solicitor provided him with a summary of his investment projections. Daryl had been his solicitor since he was eighteen. He hired him for himself against his parents' wishes, but Van wanted nothing to do with his parents' lawyers. He knew they wouldn't have his best interests in mind.

"Your accounts are doing well, as usual, m'Lord. If you wanted you could be a bit more aggressive with your investments. You're still young, you've got a few more years before you should start thinking conservatively about your portfolio."

"That's good." He nodded. "I have a couple questions about Blarcum Industries' leadership arrangement."

Daryl smiled. "I've been waiting for you to finally ask me about that. Are you looking to overthrow your mother?"

Daryl had been pestering him for years to get his mother's hands off the company, but Van never saw the need to. Not until now. Not since Amani had come into his life.

"Yes, I want to know the litigation process. I know she holds most of the shares which makes her the controlling shareholder. I just need to know what I need to do to remove her."

Daryl nodded and scribbled a few notes on a piece of paper. "So, you know she owns the majority shares in Blarcum. You would need to file a lawsuit against her citing that she is unfit to control the deciding vote of the company. You'll need evidence to support this and you'll also need the support of the other shareholders," he explained. "You're going to need Ganson and Oberman's support the most as they own the third and fourth most shares in the company. If you can't get them on your side, you'll have to get the support of smaller shareholders."

"Right, that's what I thought. What kind of evidence do I need to remove her?"

"Well, you could use the fact that she's forcing you to marry Lady Fife for financial gain, but you'd need written or recorded evidence of that. If she's tried to embezzle money from the company is another thing you could use against her, but that would take time to track the company's finance records and I'm assuming you're getting married soon?"

Van shook his head. "We haven't set a date yet and I'm going to avoid that for as long as possible." He sighed. "Can you get a true copy of my father's or my grandmother's will from the court? I don't trust the one my mother's solicitors have on file and I want to make sure she actually owns what she says she does."

Daryl nodded. "I'll petition the courts again to get the originals. There's a new registrar I've been working with who doesn't seem in cahoots with your mother's friends in court. It'll take a few weeks, maybe more with the holidays coming, but I'll get it."

"Good, when you get them can you send them to my assistant? I'll find a way for her to look through the company's finance records and figure out how to get some damaging evidence on my mother."

This could really work. I could actually take down my mother without losing everything.

Daryl grinned. "I can do that. What's with this determined ambition of yours? You've never been this ready to take control of your life."