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“Tuck . . .” Liv starts, and her warning tone would give me pause any other day, but I won’t change my mind about this.
“Did you know that my trust fund was triple what yours was?” I let my feelings about it come through in every word. “That Maddox and Mason’s trusts are each triple what you got?”
My brothers-in-law are visibly, instantly furious, but my sisters only look startled, not really surprised.
Just another thing to hate Jim for.
“Jim gave me this place after I graduated college.” I wave a hand around. “He let me have a twenty-five-million-dollar brownstone just because.”
I take a deep breath because there’s no reason to get worked up about it all now. They know how I feel, they already know I’m in their corner, have known for a while. Now I’m just putting my money where my mouth is—literally.
“I love you,” I say simply, and this time I do lock eyes with Aaron, Mark, and Kyle, because I can include them in that statement, no problem. “Your cards . . .” I point at them. “Do have a limit on them. Mostly because I have no clue what your spending habits are like.”
I shrug that off, because it’s still going to take some effort for them to get to that limit.
Then I look at my sisters, one at a time. Liv’s eyes are full of that fierce fight she’s always ready for, Luna with her soft disapproval, and Avery with an easy love that tells me she’ll indulge me even while she thinks I’m being silly.
She can keep thinking that, Luna can disapprove all she wants, and Liv can fight about it with me all day, but that won’t change anything.
“Yours don’t have limits. I doubt you’re going to go crazy and buy a castle or an island tomorrow.” Which are the only things that would put a serious dent in the trust. “And honestly, if that’s what you want, then go right ahead. But I just want you all to know you can have whatever you want. We are all Barclays, and the trust belongs to all of us. This isn’t me giving you money, this is me telling you it’s yours to do with as you wish. As far as I’m concerned the trust is ours, and because I know it’s going to take a while for all of you to wrap your minds around this, I’ve set up trusts for all the kids. They all got the same amount.”
I grab the three copies with the details and pass those around so all six of them can look them over.
“And they include money for college and school. What matters most to me now, if I’m being honest, is that you start paying all your bodyguards with these. You only need them because you’re Barclays, so the trust should pay for them.”
I don’t have any more to say, and I’m waiting for their reactions—the protests that I know are coming—and I’m surprised when it’s Mark, the most level-headed out of all of us who speaks first.
“You’re right that none of us need this, but I appreciate the gesture either way. I’m not going to be using the card,” he declares. “But if it makes you feel better for us to have it, then we’ll keep it.”
He’s the one who needs it the least, considering that in his career he’s probably made more money than even Aaron—and he was the best paid baseball player in the world for a few years.
“We’re about to be a two-salary household,” Aaron says next and shrugs in his easy way. “We don’t need it either, but I agree that the trust should pay for the bodyguards.”
Out of the three husbands, he’s the one who resisted having personal security the most, but after a “fan” of his tried to kidnap Liv a few months after they got married, he’s accepted it, even if he still doesn’t like it.
“Aaron,” Liv says reproachfully.
“What?” he asks, voice going high-pitched. “We’re all in danger. All our children are in danger because of the family they were born into. It should be the responsibility of the family.”
“He’s not wrong,” Luna says, finally speaking up. “I don’t like that you felt you had to do this, Tuck, that—I hate that you feel like you’d have to pay us back for everything he didn’t give us.”
“I’m not,” I protest with feeling. “I’m not paying you back, I’m making sure you know what’s already yours.”
“I think if we all share willy-nilly without any kind of order—” Avery starts, but I interrupt.
“Oh my god, none of you are crazy,” I point out. “None of you are going to go insane, and if you tell me tomorrow you want to buy something that’s truly huge, then we can all discuss it and we’ll all share ownership.”
“I don’t want it to be mine,” Luna says suddenly, and that finally snaps me out of the rant I was gearing towards. “I appreciate the gesture, and yeah the whole ‘paying for security’ thing makes sense, but I don’t want to think that money is mine.”
“I’d like to make some donations, but that’s pretty much it,” Liv pipes up then looks at Avery. “He wants to give us access, let him give us access, but he’s right, none of us are going to go insane, and if someone does, then the rest of us can fix it and take away their card, okay?”
Avery still looks like she disagrees.
“And who exactly is going to be monitoring who spends what?”
“My broker,” I tell her, deadpan. “And you go right ahead and go crazy with your donations, Liv. For now, why don’t we go hang out with the kids? You can keep disagreeing with me next time we have a family meeting. Luna, Liv, and I are meeting mid-week already to talk about the teams while everyone’s at school, and you can join us if you feel like it, Avery.”
“Fine,” she says, resigned for now, but I know that won’t last.