Chapter 2
Calloway’s injury was minor.
The urgent-care physician documented a bruise across the upper shoulder and a small scrape from the fall.
No fracture.
No head injury.
No loss of motion.
Shepherd was grateful.
Dr. Allison Reed was careful not to overstate anything.
“The tongs caused a painful impact.”
She looked at Shepherd.
“He was lucky.”
Shepherd nodded.
Calloway was referred to Dr. Nina Barrett, a child psychologist who specialized in grief and family trauma.
Shepherd’s wife, Maisie, had died nineteen months earlier after a sudden cerebral aneurysm.
Calloway had been five.
He still sometimes slept with the lamp on.
He still kept one of Maisie’s old scarves under his pillow.
Conrad hated that.
Not openly.
Not at first.
He called it softness.
Then dependence.
Then “Shepherd turning the boy into a professional victim.”
Shepherd had dismissed those comments as an old man’s cruelty.
Now they sounded different.
Dr. Barrett spoke with Calloway privately.
Afterward she met Shepherd.
“He describes eating from the dog bowl on three occasions he clearly remembers.”
Shepherd closed his eyes.
“Three.”
“Possibly more. I’m not assigning a number beyond what he can distinguish.”
“Good.”
“He says Conrad told him the bowl was for children who ‘come to family with their hands out.’”
Shepherd’s jaw tightened.
Calloway had never asked Conrad for money.
He was seven.
Dr. Barrett continued.
“There is also repeated language about inheritance.”
“What kind?”
“Your father apparently tells him that everything he has comes from the Mercer family and can be taken away.”
Shepherd looked up.
“Everything?”
“House. School. Vacations. Toys.”
“That isn’t true.”
“I’m telling you what Calloway believes he has heard.”
Shepherd stared at the floor.
Maisie had come from a working-class family in western Pennsylvania.
Public-school teacher.
No trust fund.
No country club membership.
Conrad had never forgiven Shepherd for choosing her over the daughter of one of his business partners.
He was polite to Maisie while she was alive.
Polished cruelty.
Comments about “learning how our family works.”
Jokes about grocery-store wine.
Remarks about Calloway inheriting “his mother’s appetite and none of her common sense.”
After Maisie died, Shepherd assumed Conrad would stop.
Instead, the target became Calloway.
Dr. Barrett asked:
“Does Conrad control your finances?”
“No.”
“Any housing?”
“No.”
“Calloway’s school?”
“No.”
“What is the trust he threatened you with?”
Shepherd hesitated.
“The Mercer Family Trust.”
“How dependent are you on it?”
“I’m not.”
That was mostly true.
Shepherd owned his home.
He earned a significant salary as president of Mercer Civil Systems.
His personal holdings were substantial.
But the trust mattered differently.
It owned thirty-two percent of the family company.
A portfolio of industrial land.
Several warehouses.
A large investment account.
Conrad was one of three trustees.
Shepherd was another.
The third was First Hudson Trust Company.
Shepherd’s eventual beneficial interest could not simply be erased because Conrad became angry.
But Conrad had always spoken as if the trust belonged to him personally.
The family let him.
That was part of the problem.
Shepherd’s attorney, Lena Price, arrived before evening.
She watched the doorbell footage.
At Conrad’s line—
He never stays calm when it’s the boy—
she paused.
“What was happening in the family before today?”
Shepherd looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“Your father appears to be anticipating a reaction.”
“He hates how I raise Calloway.”
“That isn’t enough.”
She played the clip again.
“Why is Russell Dane standing there?”
“My father’s accountant.”
“At a barbecue?”
“Family friend.”
“Convenient.”
Shepherd leaned back.
Lena continued.
“And why does Conrad threaten your trust position less than three minutes after provoking you into striking him?”
Shepherd stared.
The answer should have been obvious.
It wasn’t.
Then Lena asked:
“When is the next trust vote?”
Shepherd went still.
Thursday.
Four days away.
The Mercer Family Trust was scheduled to vote on a $26 million purchase.
A distressed luxury-development project called Clearwater Ridge.
Seller:
Crestwell Development Partners.
May you like
Majority owner:
Conrad Mercer.
