TO HAVE OR TO HOLD

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Emma Blair Tribol seems to have a knack for doing things badly. She married her high-school sweetheart just days after graduating from high school to hide an unplanned pregnancy from her family and to finally live her own life. The pregnancy ends in miscarriage, and the marriage doesn’t work out the way she had hoped.

Three years later, divorced and with a 15-month-old baby, she moves to Utah where she has family to help her through this transition in her life. Though she tries to find her place in the LDS church again, she feels she doesn’t fit. When her employer, Andrew Davidson, offers her a marriage of convenience in order for him to receive a substantial inheritance, she doesn’t see any reason not to accept. But as with everything else in Emma’s life, things don’t go exactly as planned. Before she can blink, she’s made a mess of things all over again. She’s fallen in love with Andrew, but holds no illusions that it’s a good thing.

However, Andrew is also caught up in conflicting feelings, and when he finds himself faced with everything he never wanted, he desperately seeks answers of his own.

CHAPTER ONE

Andrew Davidson glanced at his watch and let out a breath as he pushed his chair back from the conference table. It was a mistake to have come. He stood up and proceeded toward the door. He wasn’t the kind of man that gave into fanciful possibilities—he shouldn’t have fallen prey to this one.

When he’d received the letter two weeks ago, asking him to schedule an appointment with an attorney concerning a Davidson family trust, he’d been unable to resist. He’d set up the appointment, cleared his morning appointments for the day, and tried to remember everything he’d ever been told about the man whose name he’d inherited. There was little to recall.

Richard Davidson, Andrew’s father, had been born into a wealthy family, but had been disowned after years of drug addiction and disappointment. When Andrew was two years old, his mother, Karen, had given up too. For five years she’d endured her husband’s depraved life of nothingness, and she was no longer willing to do so. She took her young son, and they moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she got a job as a cocktail waitress while the divorce was held up by one legal technicality after another.

Just two weeks after Andrew’s third birthday, nearly a year after Karen had originally filed for divorce, Richard died of a heroin overdose—making all the legal difficulties moot. Richard had been thirty-three years old, only four years older than Andrew was now. Despite Richard’s lavish lifestyle, he’d died a pauper and left Karen and Andrew with only a $10,000 insurance policy which Karen used to pay off her divorce lawyer. It hadn’t been a happy marriage, and since it became a miserable divorce, it wasn’t a subject she cared to speak of often.

Andrew grew up in Las Vegas, surrounded by other children of single mothers. Dwelling on his paternal ancestry had never been of much interest, other than his mother demanded that he not turn out to be a bum like his father.

Andrew had worked very hard to do right by his mom in that way, but finding out there was some kind of trust fund connected to the family he knew nearly nothing about piqued his interest. This morning he’d flown from his apartment in Los Angeles to San Jose, where the attorney’s office was located. Now, after cooling his heels for twenty minutes, he was ready to cut his losses and chalk his insanity up to depraved nostalgia over a man he barely remembered and a family he’d never met. When the Davidsons had turned their back on their drug addict son, they had turned their back on his little family too. He’d grown up a latchkey kid in the Vegas projects with never two coins in his pocket. But he wouldn’t have had it any other way. Andrew had gotten where he was now all by himself and it made his success that much sweeter. He didn’t need or want them or their money now.

His hand was just inches away from the door knob when it turned, causing him to pause and quickly step back to avoid getting hit with the door as it opened. A short round man with wire-rimmed glasses and a fringe of gray hair swirling his bald spotted head, looked up at Andrew and nodded.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting, Mr. Davidson,” the man said as he stuck out his hand. From the tone of his voice, Andrew guessed he not only made a habit of making people wait, but he expected people to do so without complaint. “I’m Mr. Austin, a partner of this firm, and if you’d take a seat we can go over the stipulations of the trust.”

Andrew wavered for a moment; he had a lot to do in L.A. and was offended to have been kept waiting so long. Yet, his curiosity was still getting the better of him. He finally nodded and headed back to the seat he’d just vacated moments before. Besides his curiosity, he’d always run his business by his gut, and his gut told him it was worth his time to stick around. Once seated, the other man smiled politely and passed Andrew a spiral bound folder with his name on the cover. He kept an identical folder for himself.

“I’ll get right to the point, Mr. Davidson,” Mr. Austin said, opening his folder and clearing his throat twice. “The Davidson family has a trust account that you’ll be eligible to receive on your thirtieth birthday. This meeting is to inform you of the stipulations and requirements associated with this trust, as well as its limitations and provisions.”

The immediate questions began swirling around like bees in Andrew’s head, but Mr. Austin didn’t give him time to ask anything before continuing. “Let me fill you in on the full spectrum, and then I’ll answer any questions.”

Andrew nodded and began thumbing through the folder as Mr. Austin found the page he wanted to start with. Andrew bit back his questions and forced himself to look comfortable.

Mr. Austin didn’t waste any time. “This trust was established in nineteen eighteen by your great-grandfather. The trust was to continue for as long as there were sufficient funds and is eligible to all legitimate male descendants of the Edward Davidson line.” His monotone voice droned on as if the details of this trust were of no interest to him whatsoever. He may as well have been a plumber fixing a sink. “The trust is payable only if all the following requirements are met.

“First, the heir’s father must have received the trust payoff. Second, the heir must have completed at least two years of upper level education. Third, the heir must be of sound mind. Fourth, the heir must be in a stable marriage for the duration of at least one year with the added—“

“Whoa, wait a minute,” Andrew interrupted. “What –“

“Please let me finish, Mr. Davidson. Now where was I? … Oh, yes, there can be no current legal actions pertaining to the absolution of the marriage. Your wife must use Davidson as her legal name, and you must reside at the same address. The fifth and final stipulation mandates that no legal action can be instituted against the trust. If any one of these requirements are not fulfilled in whole, the trust is forfeit.” Mr. Austin looked up, his face deadpan as he continued. Andrew’s head was spinning. “I’ve learned enough about you, Mr. Davidson, to know that you fulfill the first three stipulations of the trust. Although you’re not married, you don’t turn thirty for almost eighteen months, which gives you time to complete the fourth requirement. The fifth requirement is up to you. However, to date there have been four disputations and four terminations of eligibility because of that requirement. Our meeting today is the official declaration of eligibility, which is to take place eighteen months before the payoff date.”

Andrew waited several seconds to be sure Mr. Austin was finished. He couldn’t help but chuckle as he spoke. “And this is for real.”

“Absolutely,” Mr. Austin said with a nod as he laced his fingers together and rested them on the table.

“What’s the point?” Andrew then asked. He knew enough about trusts and deeds and other legal contracts to know that few people went through the effort of creating such trusts as this without a very good reason.

“Edward Davidson struck it rich in steel and oil. He had two sons, both of whom took the lifestyle of their father for granted. As the boys grew older, Edward became obsessed with preserving his family’s name. He was an eccentric old man anyway, and spent two years creating this trust in order to ensure that his sons changed their ways, settled down, and bore legitimate heirs before he died. It worked, for the most part, and, obviously, the trust has continued. You are one of the only two remaining heirs; however, since most of the Davidson men seem to have an aversion to having children and often die young due to the lives they lead once they get the money.” Mr. Austin shook his head as if disgusted, but continued with the same monotone voice. “The payoff is determined by dividing the total trust amount by the number of heirs at the time the current heir turns thirty, which means you are entitled to fifty percent of the total trust amount.”

“Okay, fine,” Andrew said, still chuckling at the insanity of the whole thing. Edward Davidson had gone through a lot of trouble, and now, eighty years later, when he should have had hundreds of progeny, he had two. Andrew found it quite fitting. He didn’t appreciate dictatorship. “So how much is left? Five thousand dollars?”

Mr. Austin’s cheek twitched, but he only held Andrew’s eyes for a moment before busying himself with the folder once more. “Well, it’s an invested trust; therefore it fluctuates according to how well the investments are doing. Edward may have been eccentric and controlling, but he was a brilliant financier.” He opened the folder and flipped a few pages. Andrew watched as Mr. Austin moved his wrinkled finger down the page. When it stopped, he looked up, peering over his glasses and watching Andrew intently. “It looks like your pay-off will be somewhere in the neighborhood of two point four million dollars, give or take a couple hundred thousand.”

Andrew’s mouth went dry. He became completely still and simply stared at the older man. The sum of two point four million dollars implanted itself in his brain, but he didn’t take a breath for nearly thirty seconds. “Two and a half million dollars,” he repeated when he found his senses again. The words rolled off his tongue like butter.

“Yes,” Mr. Austin said with a small smile—his first.

Andrew remained silent for a few moments as the feeling came back to his fingers and toes. The meeting, purely for curiosity sake a few minutes ago, had suddenly become interesting. Two and a half million dollars, he repeated in his mind.

“How much was my father’s pay-off?” he suddenly asked. His mother had mentioned Richard having family money, but not in a way that had prepared him for this—especially since Richard was broke by the time he died.

Mr. Austin consulted the folder for a few moments. “Richard received just under one million.”

One million dollars, Andrew repeated silently with disgust. And yet his mother had worked two jobs most of his life. He was now intrigued, the “to do” list in his planner completely forgotten. He opened the folder to page one and began reading the legal description one word at a time. When he turned to page two, Mr. Austin cleared is throat, causing Andrew to look up at the older man.

“You’re welcome to look this over as long as you like, but the information itself must remain in this office at all times—you’ll read about that provision in a few pages. Edward didn’t want any of the information made public. Anytime you want to review the trust, call my secretary, and we’ll set it up.” Andrew stood when Mr. Austin stood, and they shook hands again, although Andrew barely noticed. His head was spinning.

Mr. Austin continued, “You’ll find a letter of intent in the back of your folder. If you intend to claim the trust in full, you must sign the form. It allows us to make the necessary stock adjustments for the pay-off. This paper also gives your consent for us to hire an investigator who will verify, every few months, that you’re fulfilling the requirements. If it ever becomes apparent that you do not, you will either be informed that the trust payoff has been cancelled, or, if it is a circumstance you can change, you will receive a letter of warning to inform you of where you fall short.”

“And if I don’t sign?”

“If you don’t sign this, we can’t make the adjustments to get you a full pay-off. If on your thirtieth birthday you happen to meet the requirements, you will be eligible for a lump sum of five hundred thousand dollars—the maximum available for immediate withdrawal. It really makes little sense not to sign this form, especially since marriage is the only requirement you lack. However, signing is in no way a guarantee. The requirements must still be met in full or you get nothing.” He smiled once more as he withdrew his hand. “My secretary will help you with anything you need.”

Andrew waited until the door shut behind Mr. Austin before pulling his cell phone from his pocket. He punched in the number, put one hand in the pocket of his Armani dress pants, and turned to stare out the window overlooking downtown San Jose.

“Davidson Development,” his secretary said when she got on the line.

“It’s me,” he said in a tone that still betrayed his distraction. “I need you to cancel my afternoon. I won’t be making it back to the office today.”

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