I blanked out much of what happened that Wednesday, April 6, 2033, at my parents' home. All night long, more people came as they heard the news. I had a lot on my mind. I knew that I was going to be the key person to plan for the funeral. But I also knew that people needed to come from all across the Former United States of America. The funeral would take place seven or eight days after the passing of my parents. So I knew the funeral was not something I needed to worry about right away.
I knew it was vital to greet the guests as a couple. I made sure to move around the house with Faith as much as I could. It was tricky. The phone kept ringing, and people kept trying to pull me aside. I did my level best to keep Faith next to me at all times, even when I was called to the phone. When people called, I confirmed the facts; then I collected their name and their e-mail address so that I could focus on the visitors. I also was careful to ask everyone who showed up who needed to be notified.
Jennie was a mess. She was constantly crying. I did my best to comfort her. Both Faith and I did our best to figure out if she had concerns about the future without our parents around. We did our best to say that we would make sure her needs were met. I said, “You are 18 years old, so you are a full adult, and able to make your own decisions.” She asked, “What are the basic decisions moving forwards?” I said, “Everyone wants to support you. There are two basic approaches. We can sell the house and move into small apartments to raise some cash. We can also sell some of our parents' artwork and other items that other people value. Or we can keep the house. I cannot promise a huge income from the business, but we will work very hard to meet your needs. It is going to be tricky since we may lose some clients once people learn that the two owners are no longer alive. But then we will do not have to pay their salary anymore. There may be some life insurance. I need some time to investigate our parents' papers to know what the situation is.”
Another concern that I had was to get some idea what happened to my parents' car. There seemed to be many mysteries here. Why were my parents on the road at that time? Were they traveling to meet someone? Why did my parents' car leave the road? I knew this was not the time and place to ask a question like this. But I was going to pay close attention to anything anyone said that would explain what had happened at the accident scene.
I should be telling the reader how I felt that night. I have a hard time remembering. It is all very cloudy in my mind. I do remember thinking if it was my job to comfort people who came to our house or if it was their job to comfort me. Everyone respected that I stayed next to Faith the whole night. People started leaving around 1:30. Faith and I fell asleep at about 2 am. We were totally exhausted.
The next morning, I wrote an e-mail that gave the details of the deaths and the funeral details to all of the contacts that I could find. I asked people to forward the e-mail to all the people they could think of who would want to know. Soon, everyone who needed to know had heard what had happened.
With so many distant friends and relatives coming to the funeral, Faith and I got married three days after the funeral. Jennie was the assistant. No one cared about how we were dressed, or much about the details of the wedding. It was just one more thing to check off the list of things to do.
Faith's whole extended family traveled up from Los Angeles. This time there were no delays or problems with transportation. Everyone was very sweet to us. We told everyone that our first job was to stabilize the family business and to make sure that Jennie was properly supported. Everyone understood. We promised to come to Los Angeles as soon as it was feasible.
My parents' will stated that a trust would be set up in the event of their death. The business would become the property of the trust. The family trust would make sure that Jennie and I got the support that we needed. I signed some papers waiving my right to some of the proceeds of the trust since I was concerned about Jennie.
I got so involved in telling my story that I almost forgot that this is our story. By this, I mean the strange transition from thinking mostly about myself to thinking about us as a couple. Our marriage was rushed. We had so much on our minds. We just woke up one morning married to each other. At first, there were no changes at all. I was Chris and Faith was herself. But we burst out laughing when our partner mentioned the words “husband” or “wife.” We would be at a bakery and Faith would say, “Let me ask what my husband wants.” We would get the giggles for a few seconds.
There were other incidents which were quite embarrassing. Faith was tall, imposing, and a sharp dresser. I was the opposite. Sometimes Faith would be asked about “your slave” when I was wearing a coat or sweater that covered my neck. She had to say, “That's not my slave, that's my husband.” Either way, Faith was using possessive language. It was not unknown for a woman to purchase a partner. So in many ways, it was hard to convince anyone once they had made this snap judgment. I just kept quiet and looked down. Faith told me the problem was caused by the fact that I was not “dressing to impress” as if I was going on a date. Faith suggested that I start wearing expensive jewelry, and to the extent possible, show my bare neck.
Our friends, relatives, and contacts all expected vast changes. We wove together moments where we were exactly the same people with moments where we were undergoing subtle changes. Before marriage, we were two people who every so often ended up being together. After marriage, we were living together; I started thinking about the time I was not with Faith.
The biggest change was a reflection of our life situation. Before, our choices seemed simple and obvious. We were going to work for my parents. We had to decide which courses to take. We had to figure out what to do on a date. It was so easy to agree. Now, we had a universe of choices to make. What were we going to do with ourselves, now that all our plans, choices, and possibilities were so badly disrupted? We quickly found out how easy it was to disagree. I did my best to listen, be positive, but still say what I wanted to say. What helped was that we often talked about just how difficult our choices were.
I knew we were all in trouble if my parents' business collapsed in the aftermath. Faith and I spent many hours with the staff to reassure our customers that the business was in good hands. We worked out a plan to hire a new business and technology manager to replace the management oversight provided by my parents.
After a few days at the firm, I started getting the message from the senior staff that they had things under control, and that they did not need our help. They suggested that we take a year to get over our personal loss before joining the company. I was told, “If you join now, customers will think that we are in panic mode. Of course, we will consult with you. You and your sister are the owners of this great company. There will always be a place for the two of you at this company. But right now, please take some time off.”
The odd thing was that the junior staff all assumed that we were in the process of joining the staff. These miscommunications led to some very awkward conversations. Something was not quite right. It took a few more months before I finally understood what was going on. I can tell you that the first week after my parents' untimely death was truly confusing. I wanted to fix things, but I had no idea what needed fixing.
Just before college graduation, I got a demand letter to pay $800,000 for half the value of the business, or the business would be sold in 30 days. It also stated that Jennie would be the sole owner of the house and that I had 30 days to move my things from my parents' house.
I called Faith immediately. She said that I was exaggerating. I called the law firm mentioned in the letter. He said he would only communicate with my lawyer. I said, “I do not have a lawyer.” He said, “That is not my problem. It just makes my job easier.”
I called a family friend who was a lawyer. He made a few calls and said, “It appears that Jennie feels you are taking advantage of her. She wants the business sold as soon as possible so that she can live in the family house with a large cash settlement. Based on some of the documents you signed last week, Jennie does have the right to force this sale.”
Everything just got worse and worse. I found out that if I could stabilize the business, and negotiate a sale in the six to nine-month timeframe, the business would be worth about four million dollars. If the business had to be sold now, with all the emergency accounting and legal fees, the sale would raise about 1.5 million for Jennie and me. Even worse, this would be a sale to liquidate the assets as fast as possible. The employment contracts for the staff, the building, all the equipment, and software would be sold to the highest bidder. Even worse, if I started my own business somehow, I would end up competing against the remnants of my parents' company. If I used any code that Faith and I had written, we would be sued for violation of intellectual property.
I did my best to talk to Jennie. She was convinced that I was a thief because I had not mentioned the possibility of selling the business on the night of my parents' death. While I regret not mentioning that as an option; I did not think it would have mattered. Jennie would have been angry at us no matter what. At the heart of the situation, she felt that Faith was stealing her parents' love from her. I wanted some way of saying that the reason our parents were so keen on Faith was that they saw Faith Winters as the means to seal me into the company so that the company could support her. She was so blind with rage she could not recognize how we were all trying to help her.
Jennie was the one person who could have stopped the demand sale. Twenty-five days after our graduation, the business was sold to a bank, which as expected, liquidated everything. All my hopes and dreams for the future died that day. I swore to myself that I would never forgive Jennie or speak to her again. Two weeks after the sale, I got a check for about $790,000, and Jennie got a check for about $660,000. The checks were different because of the need to account for the value of Faith's senior year tuition and the value of our parents' house.
I did receive some reports from friends that Jennie had many young men who wanted to marry her. Her youth, lack of supervision, house, and money made her an attractive partner. Some of her suitors were not so young. I was in no mood to rescue her from her own mistakes. Considering what she did, I could not imagine her listening to any advice from me.