Chapter 36: Mick and Keri and the Foundation of Failure

Keri is smart and money wise. She makes in excess of $1.7 million a year and her net worth in liquid assets is in the $30 million range. She keeps what she calls an “adventure account” of about $500,000 for times when she wants to take me and go somewhere on a plane.

When we became serious, she talked me into letting me live off of her so that I could take my entire income and put it towards retirement. I know what you are thinking, why would I need a retirement account when she is set for the rest of her and my life. She told me on the day we agreed to take these financial steps that she loved me and wanted to be sure that if I did ever leave her, that I would be set for my life as well.

I told her that I am not leaving unless she throws me out, but she has kept the account and it is growing at a rate of about 18% per year. If I want to buy something for myself, or for a gift for Keri, I use my own money. Otherwise Keri covers all of the bills. I had a one bedroom apartment when we met and I kept it for almost a year before letting it go. She went to the landlord and negotiated a flat fee for the rent for the rest of the lease and saved me about $2500.

You know by now the situation with Barb and her kids, well our kids. Barb lives in Japan and did a worldwide search for a financial advisor that would meet her specific criteria. Barb chose Keri from a final list of eight financial people to manager her money. It was a lot of money, in the hundreds of millions by now, but Barb also wanted something else. She came to the US in person to sign the contracts, when she could have done it from home, because she wanted to get pregnant by some total stranger and have the child she had always yearned for.

She had no interest in a permanent marriage or other such arrangement. She just wanted a sperm donor. But when she arrived here, and she met Keri, she knew that this was a special woman and business person and it did not take long for her to intuitively feel that Keri and I were together. We were hiding it a bit back then, but she noticed that I loved Keri and she decided that I would be the perfect sperm donor. The three of us had an all-night orgy and sure enough she caught the magic bullet. It turned out to be a real magic bullet too, as she ended up pregnant with twins.

After she left and flew home, she wrote us to let us know what her plan had been and that she was, indeed, pregnant with twins. She then wrote us again to let us know that she had a son and a daughter. She named them Mick and Keri and her plan is to tell them that they are named after their aunt and uncle in America. Barb said that when the kids were older she would tell them the truth, but she wants no money from me or support from me.

After we had been together, it became apparent to Barb that she cared for me and that I would be a good father, but she did not want to move from Japan and did not want the kids raised in the US. So I was told that I was just a sperm donor and nothing else was required of me.

However Keri and Barb took steps to ensure that should anything happen to Barb that I would be revealed as the father and I would become their custodial parent and her sole. So she told me that she did not want me in their lives and that I was, after all, just a sperm donor.

Keri set up the whole financial deal and Barb has decided to hide most of the money and has decided to raise the kids as middle class types in Japan. The plan was that until Barb passes away or they graduate from college, the kids will not know that they are worth hundreds of millions.

I came home one night to find Keri sitting in the TV room looking at her laptop. She was crying a little and I, of course, asked her what was wrong. She quickly closed the laptop and told me that it was nothing, just some news from an old friend. Keri never cries and that got me worried. I love her and when she is unhappy, so am I.

I moped around for a few days and the incident kind of ate at me. I asked Sarah, but she either did not know or would not tell me. She had one hell of a poker face. I got a feeling that something was up and I could not put my finger on it. Then, the demons took a hold of me.

Was Keri pining for an old lover? I thought that we never had secrets. Now there was this. After a few days of letting it rot inside of me, I sat Keri down to talk.

“Keri, I love you.”

“I know, Mick. I love you too from the bottom of my heart.”