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John had read up on some of the technical issues that astronauts faced while at the ISS and better communications was always at the top of the list. He figured we could research how to solve those problems and while he would work on the technical aspects of the project, I would do the funding side of things. It was nice to be working together on a new project. We could work on anything we wanted. When the sky is the limit in terms of money and ideas, why not go for something big like the space industry?
If we could work on this project together, we could sell the technology to NASA and that would give us cred in among industry insiders. John had the technical skills, while I was the money guy. Eventually, I wanted to become involved in building and sending rockets to the asteroid belt that would mine them for precious metals that were rare on earth. I figured that would be a solid business to get into. It was a long way off, but you had to start somewhere.
I thought of it as my legacy. If I could start a company dedicated to getting there, my children and future generations could take over and make it happen. That would be a great way for my company to live on.
"Hey," I said when he walked up, looking like he used to back when we were students. It really felt like back in the day when we were both college students and had big dreams of creating a billion-dollar business.
"Hey," he said and plopped down across from me. The waitress came right over and took his order, pouring a cup of coffee for him. She refilled my cup as well.
When we were alone, he leaned forward. "I was almost going to cancel. I had a date last night."
"Oh, yeah? What lucky young woman was graced by your company?"
I smiled while he stirred some cream into his cup.
"Felicia," he said and wagged his eyebrows.
I laughed out loud. "So, Harrison finally got to you, did he? Or was it my mother?"
"I think both of them, actually."
"You always had your eye on her," I said and gave him a grin.
"I always did," he said. "I recall telling you I'd be happy to take her off your hands when you weren't quite as interested as you should have been. She's actually very pretty and very smart, you know."
"She is, but there was no chemistry between us -- at least on my part."
"On her part, too, but her mother was pushing you as the best candidate and so was Harrison. She just went along with them to keep them off her back."
I stirred my own coffee thoughtfully. "Why can't people leave us alone to find our own partners? It was you two who should have been dating, not us."
"Agreed. Anyway, we get along like two peas in a pod. I tell her about something I like, and she completes my sentence and tells me about it, and vice versa. We laugh about it all the time. There's nothing I like that she hasn't already liked or considered. I feel really relaxed around her."
"Good," I said and took a sip of my coffee. "I'm glad. Now Harrison will be off my back. All his focus on marrying off his sister will be on you. You're almost as rich as me so..."
"What do you mean, almost? I am. Last I heard, we split the profits from the sale of Chatter..."
"I have whatever I get from the Marshalls when they die."
"Yeah, but you don't really have that money, do you? At least, not yet. You only inherit when they die, right?"
I nodded, thinking of how my parents had arranged their wills so that Dana and I didn't inherit the bulk of their shares of the company they had founded. Their shares went right back into the company on their deaths. Dana and I each got a lump sum at age eighteen of several million dollars from their life insurance, but the bulk of the estate went back into the company or to charity.
At the time, I didn't care, thinking that the money I did get at eighteen was more than enough to take care of me for life. I was right. I had used that lump sum to start Chatter with John, but most of the wealth my father grew, and my mother inherited did not go to either Dana or me.
My father's idea was that we had to find our own way in life and that he and my mother would provide us with the very healthy and nurturing start in life, but it was up to us. In other words, Dana and I didn't inherit their shares of the company. It was a publicly traded corporation and the shares all went back to the corporation on his death.
That was why the Marshalls, my father's business partner, adopted us. They were old money and didn't have their own children. They didn't want their money to go to their own siblings, because both had died and only their step children would inherit their wealth. They must have figured it would be better to give their fortunes to someone they chose who might carry on the family name, rather than divide it up and give it away to charity. So, other than the lump sum from the insurance we received at eighteen, we would only inherit through the Marshalls, not through our own biological parents.
I never cared, because I never knew about it until much later when I went to business school and learned about finance. It was then that I understood that my father wasn’t a great businessman and had no idea how big his company would become. He didn't think that the Marshalls would one day get it all. He didn't think that anything would happen to him and my mother and that they would be there to look after us while we grew up.
They were both wrong, of course.
The fiery crash on the interstate, caused when a drunk driver entered the highway the wrong way, took their lives and that of several other innocents. Dana and I were left orphaned and it seemed natural that the Marshalls took us in.
I didn't really care about the Marshall family fortune, but my adoptive mother and father certainly did. They were old money and wanted to make sure it stayed in the family. Although Dana and I weren't biologically related to them, we were related through marriage as Mrs. Marshall's brother was my mother's sister's husband. It was a convoluted relationship, but not one of blood.
That was why my adoptive mother and father were so determined to match me and Dana up with old money so that the fortunes would be merged and perpetuated. Unlike my nouveau riche father, who didn't think the same way.
