Everything You Wanted Me To Be.

Chapter 73

"Grace, you okay?" I know it's a stupid question but I'm hoping it opens up a discussion.
"No not really."
"Well do you want to talk about it?"
"No." I turn to face her. I'm not sure sitting in the car in a car park is the right place but I need to know what she's thinking.
"Grace what are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking why can't things ever be easy, why is there always a choice."
"I know. It's shit." I reply honestly. Sometimes I can't help but think we are dealt a bad hand because of the things I have done to girls and Grace and just that when you're rich your not suppose to have everything. Just look at my parents. They couldn't have children so adopted me. Maybe it's the way the world is.I look over at Grace who is sobbing. I grab her hands and motion for her to come sit on my lap. I put the seat back giving her space to climb onto me. She must be sad because she takes no convincing and snuggles herself into me. I wrap my arms around her and put my hand on the back of her head.
"I'm so sorry Grace. You're amazing though and you're doing so well. How amazing is it that we have conceived ourself a child."
"A child you want me to put at risk." She is right. I'd rather have her every day forever than loose her. I haven't met my child yet but right now that's how I feel.
"I'd rather have you every single day forever, than see you die trying to birth a child I'd have to raise. Grace we also can't ignore the fact I could end up locked away. What if you did die?"
"She didn't say I'd die."
"She said you could have an ectopic pregnancy or a post partum haemorrhage, neither of them are particularly good for a person. Grace I'm not going to tell you to do it, because I know how scared you are about loosing our baby but I do want you to do it."
"I know." She whispers into my shoulder.
"What if we loose it though? What if we loose it and the case gets reopened and you got life. We'd never have a child Jace." I don't want to say it but I know I have to. I think it's going to crush her.
"Grace, would you really want a child with a convicted murderer?" She leans out of me and looks at me.
"Jace that's been a possibility the entire time. I've made peace with that. This isn't new information to me. Do you not.." her tears are building I know the question that's coming. "Do you not want this baby? Or any baby?"
"Of course I do baby, of course I want this child with you, and if for whatever reason we didn't get to bring this one into the world we'd try again till we did. I'm just more aware of the fact that we are in a limbo between potential Jail time and none. Before last night I thought I'd be around for good but I just...sitting there being questioned made me rethink that."
"I don't know what to do." She says.
"Grace I'll support you no matter what. I think you should have the surgery. If you loose the baby Grace we will fuck morning noon and night every day till we make another. I'm committed to having a child."
"But that's our child. We'd be making the choice to put them at risk. How shit parents are we if we choose that?"
"It's not like that baby and you know that. Do you want the surgery?"
"I think so."
"Then you should do it. Grace the baby might be fine. Try to think positively." Shit that's only just sunk in. We have another baby. I wrap my arms around her and squeeze my world tightly. I glance at the clock in the car. We are meeting with the attorneys shortly.
"Baby?"
"Mmm"
"I'm really sorry but we need to go to meet the lawyers and attorneys Grace." These next few days are all about me getting my affairs in order. I need to be with Grace if she has the surgery and I need to make sure she's going to be okay financially if I'm not here anymore. Meeting with the attorneys will help with that.

She sits up off me. She kisses my lips like it's going to be the last time. I kiss her back hard and lovingly. I know it's what she needs right now.
"How much time do we have?"
"Not long enough baby." I reply. She pouts and I kiss her again. She pulls away and climbs over the centre console back to her seat. God she's beautiful she's everything. I'm an idiot. I pull out the car park. I take a deep breath. I'm sure Grace has a good idea what we are up against but I'm just stressed that everyday I'm home will be my last at this point. We pull back into our garage and climb out the car. When we get back inside the house Grace goes for a shower. I can't help but pace around our living area. The door bell goes and I take a deep breath. I open the door to a few of the lawyers I've came to know well, attorneys and Charles is there with the lawyer he's found. His lawyer is beautiful, she has a look of Grace about her. I know Grace will go mad if she's my advisor.
"Afternoon everyone, come on in. We are just upstairs in the library." They all follow upstairs. I can hear Grace is getting dressed, no doubt as quickly as she can. She rushes out the door right when im shutting the library one. She kisses me on my cheek. "Sorry." I shake my head.
"You look lovely." I say in reply. She smiles. I walk over to the chair behind the desk. I pull Grace over with me and sit her on my lap. This will please Grace I'm almost certain.
"I'm pretty sure we all know each other so no need to go around introducing one another. I'm sure you all also know why you're here." I slide forward a pile of NDAs.
"Given my line of business and my personal life I'd like this to remain private. If you can all sign these NDAs. Before you say about attorney client privilege, I'm sure you understand my extra need for discretion. For those who don't know, my wife and I are expecting a baby. We don't want this to become a press field day, especially if the worst happens." They all nod and sign the NDAs. Grace puts them in a black folder.I rest my hand on Graces back.
"So...where do we start?" I poke. One of the attorneys I work with daily raises their hand.
"You need to set your assets in order sir. Atlas needs a contingency CEO and your personal finances too."
"Hi sorry, I'm a criminal defence lawyer. I'd advise that you transfer all assets to your next of kin, Mrs Atlas I presume. If they choose to open the investigation they will freeze your assets as a starting point. If you split them or transfer them now then it won't look unusual."
"So we have a plan for both of them." I reply and look at Grace who smiles back.
"Atlas is going to be restructured. I'm going to publicly announce I'm the buyer of TSC, with Charles permission." Charles nods and says "Yeah I think it's the right time." I smile at him and now my head.
"Atlas will see a restructuring of the entire top of the company. COOs will be renamed to their regions ie. Chicagos COO will become "Chicago operations Officer" in essence their pay will remain the same, except they won't be chief operating officers anymore. Instead I'm appointing a new COO who will cover the entire Atlas portfolio from the New York office. I'm going to sell 49% of the ownership to them. I have already purchased the boards share, leaving me with 51%. In the event I'm incarcerated they're going to purchase the remaining share to give them the controlling ownership. If I ever get out they can sell it back to me or pass it on to my heir."
"Whose the new COO Jace?" One of the attorneys look up. I look up at Grace.
"My wife. She has more qualifications than most COOs in New York and has worked for Atlas her entire career. Her credentials are solid, she is also an Atlas and so we will remain in the helm."
I can tell they wanted to dispute this choice. They don't however, no one has a share except my wife.
"Gail can you please draft up the papers for a 49% sale to Grace for the cost of 1 dollar."
"Mr Atlas we advise you sell at a reasonable price, it will look more credible." I look to Grace who nods.
"Fine have it drafted to half a billion."
"That's a gross understatement of the value of Atlas Sir."
"She's my wife. I'm not going to bankrupt her." Grace has no idea that she has this volume of money to her name. She infact has much more than that. I just don't want to use it to buy myself out. Gail nods.
"Ill send them for approval and signature this afternoon." I nod and thank Gail.
"As for TSC. Im going to hold the leading share." Everyone is going to be surprised at this but TSC is my only shot at freedom.
"We arrange a press conference for tonight in which I will make it known I'm the new giant in the oil game. Anyone who works in oil will respect this. Atlas share price will fall along with the other companies but they'll recover quickly when I announce Graces step up into COO which will happen at the press conference. Grace will also act as COO for all subsidiary company's under the Atlas name, but she will become the CEO of Acorp." I look to Grace who looks genuinely stunned I've given her a company. Acorp runs itself and has a very successfully COO I don't intend for Grace to do anything more than I do. Which is nothing.
"How do you wish for Mrs Atlas to take over Acorp?"
"Acorp can be sold to her for 1 dollar, I don't care about anything else regarding the matter. Acorp was responsible for her parents death, so I believe it is a fair price to be paid." The table nods.
"As for my personal assets." I look to Grace.
"All my assets must be transferred into joint name. I'm not loosing any, but Grace will gain many. Am I correct in assuming they cannot freeze joint asset?" The table nod.
"Having said that. One billion will be transferred to an account for my child it will be controlled by Grace until the child reaches 21." I could give alot more than this, but it's a gesture for Grace. She has no idea of the wealth we hold, I'm sure this is the first she's realised she's one of the richest people in the USA.
"Mr Atlas we should speak about your current situation." I nod.
"Thank you for those who have came for Asset management. Gail, I have one more thing for you but can we do that privately tomorrow?" Gail nods.
"Those who aren't party to current legal proceedings against me can leave. Thanks for taking the time. I'll be checking my emails." Most the room leaves and Grace turns to me.
"Are you insane?"
"What about?"
"Jace I don't have half a billion to buy your 50%."
"Actually you have billions. Possibly even a trillion by now." She looks at me confused.
"What?!" I nod.
"We will talk about it later." I turn to my legal defence team.

"Most of you know Grace, but what you don't know is that she has a Law degree. She was top of her class. She's going to sit on council if things come to it."
"Jace we need to know if there is any truth to the legal case?"
"There is." They nod at me and I'm not sure if I said the wrong thing.
"We have a strong feeling this won't go to trial. Evidence tampering is a felony and Detective Williams has been found guilty of this in your case. He won't be punished but he has been removed from the force."
"That happened quick."
"Jace what was the situation that led to the shooting."
"They were threatening to gang rape Grace, and make me watch. They also intended to use IVF to create our biological child. I wouldn't like to comment on the why. I shot Charles first, he shot Grace and me. His brother was torturing Grace on a dock. I mean really torturing her. She was going to shoot him but I did it. I'm not sure if I shot anyone else and killed them for certain. I definitely fired. I fired at one of the brothers who was slitting Graces throat infront of me. I missed. This is the bullet they claimed to be mine. It was Chris that did that. I have no idea if I killed the others. I know for certain I killed the first two brothers. I think maybe I killed Ahmid but I can't remember, he'd shot me. I was not in my mind."
"They all shot first?" I nod.
"You're absolutely certain they all shot first."
"Yes they all did."
"Jace this is good news. It means that you aren't able to be tried as a serial killer, or a murderer. These are in self defence or manslaughter."
"But there isn't any evidence that supports this?"
"There's no evidence supporting anything else either. The only actual evidence they have is your gun and a witness who has already admitted to shooting 2 people."
"How long would I go away for on a manslaughter charge?"
"It carries a sentence of 3, 6 or 11 years. They may choose to sentence you three times though. So a maximum of 33 years with a $30,000 fine."
"Self defence?"
"Harder to say, every case is different. Some people get let off some dont. The fact you had a gun already in your possession makes me think that you'd get sentenced maybe 5 years? I'm not sure it's hard to say." This is interesting.
"Do you think this case is going to come back up?"
"I think it's highly unlikely they'll ever charge you. There is too much at play here. It's too..corrupt. If they did it's years away. I say this because now the case has evidence tampering it needs an entirely new evidence to come up. They might throw it out before it's even opened." I look to Grace who is smiling. I'm going to be around for our baby.