Chapter 10 - THE EMERGENCY VOTE
Martin was suspended as trustee.
He was not yet removed as chairman of Carter Residential Group.
That distinction created the next problem.
The company’s Riverstone loan matured in forty-one days.
Martin’s management team proposed refinancing through a regional bank.
The collateral package included interests tied indirectly to the Descendant Trust.
Ellen Park objected.
Independent review first.
Martin argued delay could cost the company twelve million dollars.
The board scheduled an emergency meeting.
Danielle’s attorney immediately sought a temporary court order preventing Martin from using any authority derived from the disputed proxy.
Martin’s lawyers answered:
The proxy had been granted voluntarily.
The refinancing involved legitimate corporate needs.
The paternity fraud did not automatically invalidate every vote that followed.
Messy.
Then Martin did what he had always done.
He tried to solve timing before permission.
He circulated a board packet instructing directors to treat Nathan’s old voting proxy as effective until a court expressly voided it.
Rebecca called Danielle.
“He’s doing it again.”
“What?”
“Acting first because somebody hasn’t stopped him yet.”
The board packet contained forty-six attachments.
Martin had probably not read every one.
That became important.
Attachment 32:
A 2024 email from Nathan.
Subject:
RIVERSTONE / TRUST COLLATERAL
Nathan:
Do not pledge descendant assets to the operating company without independent trustee approval. If I am dead or unavailable, my personal proxy is not authority to do it.
Martin:
Your proxy says otherwise.
Nathan:
Then read Section 7. It terminates for related-party trust transactions.
Danielle stared.
Martin’s lawyers had been relying on the proxy.
Nathan himself had written that it did not cover this kind of transaction.
Maya checked.
Section 7 existed.
Martin had never disclosed it during the original refinancing.
Why?
He claimed he had forgotten.
Then another attachment.
A draft accounting Nathan had commissioned before his death.
Only ten pages.
Page ten:
Appendix A — related-party transfers
Appendix missing.
The board packet had been assembled from Martin’s own archived files.
He had accidentally revealed that Nathan was preparing an accounting before he died.
Rebecca asked the family office for Appendix A.
Staff could not find it.
Martin’s lawyer said he had never seen it.
Then an old document-management backup produced the file.
Appendix A listed fourteen transfers.
Not eleven.
Three more than Ellen Park had found.
One transfer:
$420,000.
Destination:
Carter Executive Services
Not a property project.
Not payroll.
Not Riverstone.
Purpose:
Management continuity
Nathan had written beside it:
What is this? Dad won’t answer.
Danielle looked at Maya.
“What was Carter Executive Services?”
Maya searched the corporate registry.
Dissolved.
May you like
Owned by Martin Carter personally.
The financial problem had just moved from questionable company rescue to possible personal benefit.
