Chapter 5 - The Workers’ Money
Margaret called the expense classification standard practice.
Emily looked toward the servers standing beside untouched champagne.
“My mother’s heating repair was delayed because that fund was supposedly short.”
Daniel opened the housing ledger.
The four employee buildings contained housekeepers, bell staff, cooks, maintenance workers and retired drivers.
Many had worked for Mercer properties longer than Daniel had been alive.
Their payroll deductions financed the down payments.
Yet the family history described the apartments as founder generosity.
The merger agreement would sell them to Whitmore Development for luxury towers and private residences.
Residents would receive forty-five days to leave.
The relocation payment was three thousand dollars.
Vanessa defended it.
“The land is worth too much for subsidized occupancy.”
Emily looked at her.
“They are not charity tenants.”
“They paid for the buildings.”
Margaret replied:
“They paid modest contributions.”
“So did the first Mercer investors,” Daniel said.
“No one reduced their inheritance because the checks were written decades ago.”
His mother stared at him.
For the first time, he was using old-money logic against old money.
Daniel ordered the engagement event transferred to his personal account.
Every worker would receive full overtime.
The housing repair reserve would be restored before any family distribution resumed.
Emily did not praise him.
He had approved the budget.
He had received the attachments.
He simply had not read them.
“You could afford to trust the wrong people,” she said.
“My mother could not afford your signature.”
Daniel nodded.
The merger vote was frozen pending review of Lily’s shares.
Vanessa’s family investment paused.
The apartment sale stopped.
Margaret’s authority over the employee fund was suspended.
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Then the audit uncovered a thirty-two-million-dollar housing withdrawal.
The money had purchased Daniel’s Manhattan penthouse.
