Chapter 37 - The Brother of the Lawyer
Gregory Pike was everything Warren had not been.
Calm.
Controlled.
Impossible to read.
At the first trust conference, he wore a charcoal suit and spoke as though every sentence had been weighed beforehand.
“I have disclosed my familial relationship to Warren Pike,” Gregory said.
Miriam responded immediately.
“Your brother represented Daniel Mercer during litigation involving this exact trust.”
“I am aware.”
“He possessed privileged information.”
“I am also aware.”
“And you believe this creates no appearance problem?”
Gregory folded his hands.
“My brother and I have not practiced together in twenty-three years.”
“That was not my question.”
The judge overseeing the trust matter was not Evelyn Harrow.
Judge Harrow had retired three years earlier.
This judge, Theodore Marks, was younger and visibly tired of inherited family disasters.
“Ms. Cole, unless you have evidence Mr. Pike received confidential information from his brother, I am not disqualifying a court-appointed special master based solely on blood relation.”
Miriam sat reluctantly.
Claire did not like it.
Neither did Daniel.
After the hearing, Gregory approached him.
“Mr. Mercer.”
Daniel stopped.
“Mr. Pike.”
“I remember your case.”
“I assumed Thanksgiving with Warren got interesting.”
Gregory almost smiled.
“My brother does not discuss clients.”
“That would be reassuring if your first sentence hadn’t been ‘I remember your case.’”
Gregory’s expression cooled.
“Your case was public.”
“Right.”
He walked away.
Three days later, Gregory requested complete historical access to the Mercer trust.
Reasonable.
Then he requested Sophie and Noah’s protected medical subaccounts.
Miriam objected.
“Those expenditures have nothing to do with whether Thomas was improperly excluded.”
Gregory insisted he needed to determine whether prior distributions should be recalculated.
Claire felt the old anger return.
The twins’ heart monitoring.
Therapy.
Hospital bills.
Formula.
Every dollar had been approved under court supervision.
Nobody was turning their childhood medical history into bargaining material.
Miriam filed for a protective order.
Then Daniel received a call from Warren Pike.
He had not spoken to him in ten years.
“Daniel.”
“What do you want?”
“Coffee.”
“No.”
“Then five minutes.”
“No.”
“Gregory is in trouble.”
Daniel went quiet.
“What kind?”
Warren exhaled.
“Not the kind you think.”
They met in a parking lot because Daniel refused to bring Warren near either family home.
Warren looked older.
Less polished.
“I should have withdrawn from your custody case earlier,” he said.
“That your apology?”
“No.”
“Good, because it needs work.”
Warren ignored him.
“Gregory has been obsessed with the Mercer trust for years.”
Daniel stared.
“Why?”
“Our father worked for Edward Mercer.”
That was new.
“What?”
“He was junior counsel in the family office.”
Daniel’s body went still.
“Your father knew my grandfather?”
“Yes.”
“And Thomas?”
“Yes.”
Daniel immediately called Miriam.
She arrived twenty minutes later.
Warren continued only after she sat down.
Their father, Harold Pike, assisted Charles Mercer during the original trust restructuring.
“He drafted documents?”
“Some.”
“The renunciation?”
Warren looked down.
“I don’t know.”
Miriam leaned forward.
“What does Gregory believe?”
“That Harold helped Charles falsify Thomas’s renunciation.”
Claire, listening by speakerphone from home, closed her eyes.
Another family secret.
Another son inheriting a father’s shame.
“Why didn’t Gregory disclose this?” Miriam asked.
Warren laughed bitterly.
“Because then he would never have been appointed.”
Daniel stood.
“Your brother manipulated the appointment.”
“I think so.”
“For what? Money?”
“No.”
Warren’s voice changed.
“Revenge.”
Gregory believed Daniel’s family destroyed Harold Pike.
After Charles died, old whispers resurfaced.
Harold became terrified an investigation would expose him.
He drank heavily.
His marriage collapsed.
He died disgraced within his own family, though nothing ever became public.
“Gregory thinks the Mercers ruined him.”
Miriam’s eyes narrowed.
“So he wants the trust destroyed.”
Warren nodded.
“He once told me that every Mercer beneficiary should be stripped of every dollar.”
Daniel looked sick.
“That includes my children.”
“Yes.”
The following morning, Miriam filed an emergency disqualification motion.
But Gregory moved first.
At 8:07 a.m., Manhattan Wealth Partners froze all discretionary payments from the trust pending special-master review.
At 8:32, Claire’s phone rang from Noah’s specialist.
A scheduled treatment claim had been denied.
Not because the money was gone.
Because someone had deliberately reached into a dispute between dead men and stopped payment for a ten-year-old boy’s medical care.
Claire stared at the denial notice.
May you like
Ten years earlier, Daniel had learned what happened when someone used sick children as leverage.
Now another man was about to learn the same lesson.
