Cast a Blue Shadow Read Online Free Page A

I’ll have that in three years, and you can’t touch it.”
    “True, Sonny. The trust is yours. Your sister’s is the same, but it was supposed to go to her next month.”
    Sonny stood up and paced in front of the divan.
    With slow, deliberate words, Juliet said, “I still have the authority to delay both your trusts until you’re thirty, if I don’t like the progress you’ve made.”
    “You wouldn’t,” Sonny said and stopped pacing to face his mother at the fireplace.
    Juliet Favor sipped her drink, looked at her son over the top of her glass, and said, “Henry.”
    DiSalvo pulled up another document on his screen and read, “I, Juliet Favor, deem that Sally Newton Favor is not presently competent to take responsibility for the trust left her by my late husband, Harry Newton Favor, and I do hereby suspend implementation of said Trust until her thirtieth birthday.”
    “That means, Sonny,” Juliet explained, “that Sally is going to have to get by on an allowance of $4,000 a month until she is thirty.”
    “You wouldn’t,” Sonny repeated, less confidently.
    “Who’s her current lover?” Favor asked.
    “You know, Mom.”
    “Exactly. We’re not going to have that sort of thing among the Favors.”
    “You’ve got no right to control her life like that, Mom.”
    “I am simply delaying the onset of her trust. Perhaps she’ll change her mind.”
    “What about Martha?”
    “Don’t be silly. I won’t hear you talk this way.”
    “What are you gonna do, Mom? Take away my trust too?”
    Favor pointed a finger at the laptop.
    DiSalvo chose another document and began to read. “I, Juliet Favor, deem that Samuel ‘Sonny’ Newton Favor is not competent . . .”
    “Stop it!” Sonny shouted, arms stiff at his sides and eyes watering.
    Pointing at DiSalvo’s laptop, Favor hissed, “Dump that Mennonite loser, or I’ll sign it. I swear I will, Sonny.”
    Sonny froze in the center of the parlor, back straight, arms to his sides, making impotent fists. DiSalvo blushed for the boy and closed the laptop slowly. Juliet walked to Sonny and lightly embraced him. He stiffened. She took a step back, rested her left hand gently on his shoulder, and lifted his chin with the slender, tanned fingers of her right hand.
    “Listen to me, Sonny. You’ve no idea how vast your father’s fortune really is. How vast mine is. And yours, if you measure up. Daddy always meant to bring you along himself, but he didn’t live that long, did he? Instead, when he knew he was ill, when you were eight, he began training me. So that I could be there when you came of age. Now you’re already a freshman. That gives us only three years. You’re going to have to excel at your studies. I’ll demand an MBA after college. I have Harvard in mind, and I’ve already started working on that. Your grades aren’t going to be that good if high school is any indication, so you’ll need my help then, as usual, and it’s time I laid the groundwork for that. No matter, it’s already in the works. But you’ll have to spend summers with me, learning how to manage the wealth. It’s not just money, Sonny. It’s holdings, directorships, chairmanships—a conglomerate you’ll never understand unless we start now.”
    “What about what I want?” Sonny asked weakly.
    “What you want? I’m talking about you, Sonny!” Favor shouted and shook his shoulders. “Henry, put it all on your screen there.”
    DiSalvo stroked the keys of his laptop, and Juliet led her son to a seat beside the lawyer. On the screen, Sonny read an outline of his future. Board memberships in three companies upon graduation. Directorships after an MBA. CEO of one company at twenty-eight. More positions and responsibilities with each coming year. And last, when his mother was gone, complete control of the Favor fortune. The enormity of the plan staggered him, and he could not think clearly. His mind struggled with the notion that so much had been planned for him, and he