Chapter 50

On the day they were to bury Clive Whitehall-Stone, Nick woke at five in the morning with a powerful urge to go swimming. Under normal circumstances on normal mornings, he would have violently suppressed such an urge and tried in vain to go back to sleep. But he’d started nodding off absurdly early yesterday and slept over twelve solid hours. Even Pilar coming to bed had only woken him for a brief conversation and a momentary consideration of sex, but she’d been content to drift off in his arms and he’d been content to let her.

Waking up curled around Pilar, swimming hadn’t been Nick’s first powerful urge. But she’d been sound asleep so that she didn’t wake fully even as he disentangled himself to use the bathroom and showed no signs of waking soon when he emerged from the shower. So, he pulled on a pair of trunks he found in the dresser, threw on a robe, and headed out.

The air was cool outside, but not alarmingly so. Nick knew it was the middle of winter here, but apparently Sydney’s best effort at winter was the equivalent of a spring day in Manhattan. The temperature gauge by the pool read 17.9, which Nick’s rough math said was in the mid-sixties fahrenheit.

The water in the pool was a bit of a shock, but Nick was glad for how it cleared the accumulated cobwebs of too much sleep and the shock didn’t last. He swam back and forth across the narrow axis of the pool at the deep end, stretching out muscles that were still a little stiff from so much time on a plane.

He figured he’d be done long before anyone else woke up, but after swimming back and forth a half dozen times, he found himself approaching a pair of bare feet attached to tan legs. He swam to the ladder where his cousin Opal was standing.

“Mind if I join you?” Opal asked. She was wearing a lime green one-piece bathing suit that flattered her figure.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I am in your pool, aren’t I?” Nick pointed out. He couldn’t help remembering that one of the last times he’d seen Opal, she’d been topless in a hot tub in Montana.

“My father’s pool actually. If I tried to call this house mine, he would very gruffly remind me that he still owns it.” Opal went down on one knee and slipped into the pool. When she emerged, her naturally curly blonde hair was flat against her head. “Are you usually such an early riser?”

“Not at all.” said Nick. “My body just has no idea what time it is. I ... apologize for missing dinner last night. I conked out really early.”

“Dinner was an invitation, not an obligation.” Opal kicked off and swam to the head of the pool. “Do you have a preference for swimming the width of the pool?”

“Sorry?” Nick asked.

“You were swimming across the pool instead of doing laps. I just wondered if you preferred that for some reason? I usually swim the length of the pool in the morning.” Opal explained.

“Oh. I was just afraid I might hit bottom if I swam into the shallow end.” said Nick. “I don’t really know my way around a pool very well.”

“No worries. I’ll adapt.” Opal swam to a side wall. “If you keep the ladder on your left, we won’t collide.”

As Nick went back to swimming, he noticed immediately that Opal was a much better swimmer than him, moving gracefully through the water and completing more than two circuits of the pool for each one he managed to do. Even moving twice as fast as Nick, she still spent another ten minutes going back and forth after fatigue stopped him. When she emerged, he took the opportunity to appreciate her muscle tone in a way he hadn’t before. She wrapped herself in a towel. “Famished yet?”

“Yes, actually.” Nick admitted. “I was just starting to realize how long it’s been since I last ate.”

“Good. Mind if we have it out here? We should talk.” Opal said.

“Sure.” Nick didn’t ask what they needed to talk about. He’d learned from his conversation with Threnody how much his interests overlapped with other ultrawealthy Stones and Opal might well be the ultrawealthiest.

Opal stepped into the house and emerged with an older man carrying a coffee pot and two mugs in tow. “Nick, this is my personal chef Remy. He’s from New Orleans and will feed you some truly unspeakable, but delicious things if you let him. I convinced him to move to Australia to work for me and as revenge he’s spent the last three years trying to make me fat.”

Nick waited until the man had poured coffee to shake his hand and introduce himself. “You’re going to have to work on that a lot harder, Remy.”

“I thought I’d try beignets this morning.” said Remy.

Nick winced. “Uh, maybe none for me. I foolishly thought I was in shape until I tried to keep up with your boss in the pool. Maybe something fruit based?”

After Remy had withdrawn, Nick sat at the white metal table where Opal sat sipping her coffee. He busied himself with his own cup to give her the chance to speak first.

“I understand you met with Threnody in Milan.” she opened with.

“I did. Would it be naive of me to ask how you know that?” Nick asked.

“Threnody and I keep tabs on each other.” said Opal.

“Do you and Jesse keep tabs on each other too?” Nick asked.

“Enough that we don’t have to worry about surprising each other very often.” said Opal.

“Then I guess it’s safe to assume you’ve started keeping tabs on me too.” Nick pointed out.

“I hope you won’t take that too personally. I figured you’d reciprocate once you found your footing.” said Opal. “Jesse and I don’t spent a fraction of the energy Threnody does watching the rest of the family, but we like to stay informed.”

“Can I ask you something that’s been bothering me, then?” Nick asked.

“You can ask me anything, Nick. One of the advantages of a family where we all spy on each other is that there’s very little profit in trying to keep secrets.” said Opal.

“Was I a surprise?” Nick asked.

“Ah, that.” Opal shook her head. “You understand that the Stone family power structure has undergone a lot of turnover in the last twenty years? Of the five billionaires in the family, four are under the age of thirty and the other one is over a hundred. When you were born, I was eight.”

“So, you were less interested in family politics?” Nick suggested.

“Yes, but my father tells me he knew who you were. The family was very interested in what was going to happen to Colin’s estate and when your grandparents reported your existence to the family trustees, it wasn’t hard to look up your father’s most recent associates and determine there were only two or three candidates for who could be his child.” said Opal. “Apparently, Bunny herself told my father and Juno and Charlie that they were to leave you alone until you turned eighteen. If Threnody had been in power at the time, I wouldn’t have trusted her to keep such an agreement, but Jesse’s father has always been an honorable man and JT couldn’t care less about anything he couldn’t snort or screw.”

“Bunny’s the patriarch’s wife?” Nick asked.

“The Iron Rabbit we call her.” Opal smiled. “Bunny is very much the head of the family in a lot of ways. Obadiah’s largely retired, but even before he was, he let her do most of the talking once they were married. As for why she insisted everyone back off, you would have to ask her. My father just knew it wasn’t worth crossing her.”

“Thanks. Maybe I will.” said Nick.

“Whatever you do, my father was right. Anything you want, it’s not worth crossing the Iron Rabbit. However she started out, she has enormous wealth and influence now along with two of the five Stone Family Trust seats sewn up.” Opal suggested. “That means she’s got a three hundred billion dollar war chest at her fingertips unless Jesse, Threnody, and I all agree to oppose her on something. As you can imagine, that doesn’t happen very often.”

Nick shook his head at how much he still didn’t know about the Stone family. Threnody had said the whole family was probably worth a trillion dollars, but he’d imagined it spread out a little more evenly among the four thousand members. He made a mental note to ask Inez about that only to remember Inez was currently in Ferrari with no estimated return date. While he was thinking about that, Remy brought out plates with food. Nick looked at his and laughed.

“I did try to warn you.” Opal smiled.

Remy’s idea of a fruit-based breakfast was apparently blueberry pancakes with bacon and sausage. Nick picked up a crispy slice of bacon. “I suppose I should have been more specific. Fortunately, my cook back in New York already has practice cooking healthy. I’ll just have to get on the same diet he put my friend Max on.”

Opal smiled. “You’re really not in bad shape, Nick. I swim every day for exercise.”

“Thank you for saying so. I’m actually pretty sure I’m in the best shape of my life from all the dance lessons I’ve been getting, but it would certainly be easy for me to get fat and gross if I don’t watch it.” Nick sighed. “I’d rather not become one of those old men that everyone knows is rich because his young wife wouldn’t come within a hundred feet of him otherwise.”

“Admirable.” said Opal. “Can I take that image to mean you’re not planning on marrying me?”

Nick choked a little on the sip of coffee he’d just taken. Opal laughed. “Sorry. Terrible timing.”

“You are kidding, aren’t you?” Nick asked.

“Teasing at least,” said Opal. “If you’ve met with Threnody, she’s undoubtedly put the idea in your head. She’s very into the idea of dynastic marriages and consolidating the family fortune. I figure I should take the opportunity up front to tell you I’m not planning to go that route. If I do marry for pragmatic reasons, it will most likely be outside the family.”

“I ... um ... good to know.” said Nick. “I wasn’t seriously considering taking Threnody’s advice. I’m still not convinced one person having as much money as I do is a good idea. The last thing I need to do is worry about accumulating more.”

“That’s your choice to make,” said Opal. “I will say plainly that you and I would probably benefit from an alliance. I find myself scrambling to build a coalition on the opposite side of too many things from Jesse and Threnody for my liking. You probably will too.”

“All right.” said Nick cautiously. “How would something like that work?”

“Well, for starters, we could share intelligence. If you find yourself at odds with Threnody or Jesse or both, you could reach out to me and I could offer whatever assistance I can and I might do the same with you. I know you don’t have much of a network within the family yet, but as you build one, you could make it clear that you and I are friendly. I would do the same with my allies.” said Opal. “In fact, I have a lot of allies in the States that I don’t coordinate with as well as I could. You’d be doing me a favor by getting to know them.”

“I could do that.” Nick offered cautiously. “Pilar’s been making me aware of the value of a good network.”

“Is Pilar as good of an ally for you as she seems to be?” Opal asked.

Nick wanted to answer with an unqualified yes, but he thought about the question and said. “I think so. I don’t really have much to judge her against yet. Our goals seem to be well aligned and I’m taking steps to make them moreso. We get along well with each other. I haven’t known her long.”

Opal laid a hand on the back of his arm. “Please don’t let my question suggest I think she’s not a good ally for you. I don’t know her well, but I was very impressed with her at dinner last night. I can’t judge your alliance, but I definitely came away with the impression that she’s certainly someone I wouldn’t want as an enemy.”

Nick nodded. “I’m planning two events to get to know more of the family. Do you already know about them or should I tell you what they are?”

Opal laughed. “I heard you’re planning a big Halloween party. I don’t know what the other event is.”

“At the beginning of next month, I’m gathering together pretty much every member of the family I’ve met except Threnody and taking them to see Hamilton.” said Nick. “I was already planning to do it after the wedding in Montana, but now I’m timing it so they can meet Verity.”

“Verity Ferrari-Stone? Threnody’s little sister?” Opal looked genuinely surprised. “How on Earth did you get Threnody to cut her loose from her boarding school?”

Nick raised an eyebrow and it only took Opal a moment to answer her own question. She laughed. “Oh, God. She really is shameless. I do hope you’re not planning to take advantage of the young lady. She’s only fifteen.”

“Not that it matters to the question, but she’s sixteen and far too much like her big sister for me. I’m more worried about her taking advantage of me honestly.” said Nick. “But I do believe her when she tells me she and Threnody aren’t allies. I would love your opinion, though. You’ve been playing this game a lot longer than I have.”

“I’d love to meet her and to share my opinion.” said Opal. “And I’ve been meaning to see Hamilton. Can I bring some friends?”

“I’ve still got about forty tickets. How many friends would you like to bring?” Nick asked.

“I’m tempted to say forty, but I don’t want to be greedy.” said Opal. “Maybe half that?”

“Twenty seats are yours.” Nick agreed.

“What a delightful way to seal an alliance.” Opal smiled and toasted Nick with her coffee cup.

Nick clinked cups with her. “May it be long and beneficial.” After he sipped, he added. “Do you know that, in addition to trying to convince me to marry or impregnate her own sixteen year-old sister, Threnody also suggested I might want to do the same with yours? I wouldn’t, of course, but I thought you should know.”

“Good luck with that one.” Opal laughed. “She’s more likely to marry one of our ranch hands than a cousin, but if you were looking for a dynastic marriage, she might be your best choice. She’ll almost certainly inherit our father’s land and herds eventually and be close to a billionaire in her own right.”

“I’m really not looking for a dynastic marriage.” Nick emphasized.

“So you said. And I wouldn’t try to talk Pearl into one. Whoever she marries will more than have his hands full even if he’s madly in love with her.” Opal smiled fondly. “She’s in the house now, but she usually doesn’t get up until noon. You’ll meet her at the funeral if not sooner.”

Nick nodded thoughtfully. “About the funeral ... Did you know Clive well?”

“Hardly at all. He and my mother were first cousins and he was close friends with my father.” said Opal. “He actually led the proxy fight against me when I took control of Stone Shale, Oil, and Gas away from my father. I wouldn’t be here for my own sake, but my father is recovering from surgery and couldn’t come.”

“Anything serious?” Nick asked.

“Moderately, but he appears to be making a full recovery.” said Opal. “Thank you for asking.”

“Can I ask about that? Did you really take control of your father’s company away from him?” Nick asked.

“You sound surprised.” Opal pointed out.

“Well, you are very young.” Nick pointed out.

“I was even younger when I did it - twenty when I started the proxy fight and twenty-one when it ended.” Opal laughed. “My father always raised me to take over the business, but he never taught me to wait patiently.”

Nick allowed himself a small smile. “Is it working out well?”

“I think so. Profits are up. Shareholders are happy. We’re aggressively pursuing what comes after oil. And my father is finally taking care of his health the way he should.” said Opal. “You have to understand that my branch of the family are strange even among Stones. Malcolm once told me that Stones are rich or ambitious, but never both. We’re the exception. I don’t think my father was ever prouder of me than the day I took his job away from him.”

Max made it on time to his last meeting of the day by virtue of still being on the phone when he walked into the door of the conference room. At the head of the table, Ainsley shot him a dirty look, but he held up one finger and said into the phone. “Honestly, whoever wins the ticket will be admitted and treated like all the other guests. They’re not the bad guy in this. Whoever got a hold of the ticket and put it on eBay ... I doubt they’re doing it to give the money to charity.” Then he hung up.

“Is the seneschal done with his balls?” Simon asked.

“Ball, singular. And yes. I just had to field a media inquiry about somebody selling a ticket to Friday’s party on eBay.” Max said.

“How did somebody get a hold of a ticket so fast? I saw the courier here like an hour ago.” said Lev.

Simon laughed and looked right at Max. “Oh, you didn’t.”

Max knew Simon would probably figure the game out sooner or later, but he hadn’t expected it to be quite so transparent. “It’s good publicity. Somebody gets a hold of a ticket. Three or four bidders bid it up over a thousand dollars. The media gets wind of it...”

“And if it turns out the whole thing was a ruse cooked up by the organizer, it’s fraud.” said Ainsley. “So, let’s be glad that’s not what we’re discussing here.”

“No. What we’re discussing is sexual harassment.” said the paralegal sitting to Ainsley’s left. Max hadn’t really noticed her on the way in. With Ainsley sitting in Nick’s usual seat, she’d taken the chair Tanvi usually sat in. Now that he looked at her, he did a double take because she looked doubly familiar. She’d brought him coffee earlier that morning wearing a v-neck t-shirt with her hair down and Max had thought she was both unusually pretty and oddly dressed for the office, but now she was in a suit with her hair pulled back into a professional bun that mimicked Ainsley’s, the resemblance was unmistakable.

Before he could fully process the implication of this, Ainsley said. “I believe you’ve all met my sister Reagan in one capacity or another today, but let me introduce her formally. Reagan just graduated high school as the valedictorian of a very competitive senior class at East Mannsborough High School in East Mannsborough, Connecticut and is taking a gap year before starting at Yale in the Class of 2020. Nick hired her as special assistant to the legal department. As I said, she is my sister, but please don’t let that prejudice you one way or the other. She’s an extraordinary young woman in her own right. Today, she’s going to be leading the first part of your sexual harassment training.”

Max smelled a trap and sensed it had already been sprung. As he tried to remember exactly what he’d said and done when Reagan had been in his office, Simon said, “You said your name was Cricket.”

“I prefer Cricket, but Reagan is probably preferable in a professional environment. I introduced myself to all of you as Cricket today and you’re welcome to use either name.” said Cricket. “As you all probably suspect, I started your anti-sexual harassment training this morning by coming into the office this morning dressed borderline inappropriately and acted in an overly friendly manner to see how you would all respond and ... I have to say you actually did pretty well. I won’t embarrass you by naming names, but two of you failed to take the bait at all, one of you stared at my cleavage for just under five seconds before looking away, and one of you chatted me up in friendly, but not overtly sexual way. So, well done. Ainsley prepared me for much worse.”

“You set us up?” Simon raised an eyebrow. “I feel like I should talk to our lawyer about this.”

“Actually, you should probably retain independent counsel if you’re concerned in this case.” said Ainsley. “But under normal circumstances, if someone came in here under the pretense of good faith and tried to actively provoke one or more of you into sexually harassing her for the purpose of filing a lawsuit against the Fund, I would both defend you and consider filing criminal charges against the complainant if I felt they were warranted. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves on subject matter. Reagan, please start from the beginning.”

“Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII applies to employers with fifteen or more employees, a number the ACCD fund will be exceeding some time in the next week or two. New York State has some overlapping laws, but we’re not going to get down into the weeds today.” said Cricket. “Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. That’s the statutory definition. The courts have added some nuance to the case law and most organizations err on the side of caution when setting anti-sexual harassment policy in order to shift as much of the blame as possible for any behavior onto their employees and demonstrate a good faith effort to avoid creating a culture of harassment or a persistently hostile work environment.”

Ainsley stood up. “The way most organizations establish their policy is to treat all complaints as valid and to immediately seek to limit their own liability surface. This generally makes good financial sense and I’m recommending you establish a policy along those guidelines to protect the ACCD Fund and allow it to focus on doing the good work instead of fighting expensive legal battles brought on by employees that may or may not have engaged in harassing behavior. As Nick’s closest friends, you would of course not really be bound by any such policy. You would effectively be free to harass anyone you wanted.”

It took a good five seconds before anyone spoke up. Naturally, it was Simon who said. “Wait. I’ve had this dream before.”

“Yeah. Did you just say we would be free to harass people?” Max asked.

“Effectively.” said Ainsley. “Your positions at the Fund are pretty much untouchable and we all know Nick is exceedingly loyal to his friends. Max, if someone came to Nick and said you’d created a hostile work environment or asked her for sexual favors in return for a promotion, do you think Nick would fire you?”

“I wouldn’t do that.” Max protested.

“No. So, your accuser is lying. Does Nick fire you?” Ainsley persisted.

“No. Nick wouldn’t do that.” said Max.

“Good. Simon.” Ainsley turned to him. “Same scenario. An attractive young woman like Reagan goes to Nick and says you groped her in your office, does Nick fire you?”

“Did I do it?” Simon asked.

“Does it matter?” Ainsley parried.

“Probably not as to whether he fires me, but if I genuinely did it, I imagine he’d kick me out of the office.” said Simon.

“So, even if Nick knew you did something, he wouldn’t fire you? He would protect you in spite of the knowledge that you’d violated company policy and poor Reagan here?” Ainsley persisted.

“Let’s just be clear, this is a theoretical.” Simon said. “I like to think that, if I groped your sister in the office, it was because she clearly wanted to be groped and not because I’m some kind of sex fiend.”

“Good point.” said Ainsley. “Arwen, an attractive and free-spirited young woman comes to work for the ACCD Fund. You get to talking and you have so much in common. One night, you’re upstairs working late...”

Arwen had started blushing as soon as Ainsley addressed her and was now incandescent. “Wait. I was just getting to know her like I would any new employee...”

“This is theoretical.” Ainsley reminded her.

“Wait. Upstairs is where we live.” Lev pointed out. “That’s not work.”

“The courts have said sexual harassment can happen between even off work premises, particularly if the complainant is there for a work-related event. Office parties, travel for work, coming over to finish some work. If you bring an employee upstairs to hang out and at any point in the evening, you mention work, a good lawyer will make the whole visit work related. Even if you fastidiously avoid talking about work, that’s going to be a tenuous defense because it can come down to he-said, she-said.” Ainsley took a deep breath. “There are plenty of out-of-the-box anti-sexual harassment training courses that will serve under ordinary circumstances, but your circumstances are far from normal. The point of today has been to help you really understand the enormous amount of liability each of you represents to the ACCD Fund. One of the reasons organizations have chosen such lopsided policies in favor of the accuser is because it makes them less of a tempting target for fraud. Individual employees don’t have the deep pockets of corporations for settlements, so corporations try to focus all liability on individual employees. In your case, you all have Nick’s support. That means you technically have very, very deep pockets indeed. To compound that, ACCD won’t be able to demonstrate good faith by firing you when you’re accused. That means your behavior has to be above reproach. Even when you’re talking to each other, it can be used as basis for a suit if an employee overhears. There is a huge gap between what you can get away with and what will best serve the ACCD Fund.”

“So, does that mean no socializing with employees at all?” Max asked.

“It means you need to be smart about everything you do and be aware of the potential liability if you do socialize with an employee. Every rude comment, every off-color joke, every reference to pornography, if it’s in front of an employee, it has a chance to cost the ACCD Fund a lot of money you could be using to help real people make a better life. There will be real human costs to every screw up.” Ainsley looked around. “Even if our behavior is perfect, having access to a lot of money makes you a target of lawsuits. Let’s just try not to make this a worse problem than it is. Are there any questions?”

“You keep saying ‘employees.’ Does this apply to consultants, too?” Simon asked. Max, Lev, and Arwen glared at him. He added. “What? It’s a valid question. We did all play strip poker with Tanvi, didn’t we?”

Max winced. He’d forgotten that detail.

“The rules governing behavior towards consultants are actually different, but you should still be careful around them.” said Ainsley. After a long pause, she added. “SSCS does rest its reputation on a number of things, including the ability of its employees to integrate into challenging situations and a long history of seeking arbitration instead of litigation in disputes with clients in the fairly rare event that they seek redress for client misbehavior.”

“What does that mean? Can we play strip poker with Tanvi again?” Simon asked.

Ainsley sighed. “It goes against every instinct I have as an attorney and I’m definitely not encouraging any of you to harass or mistreat anyone, but when it comes to consultants you’ve brought on from SSCS, it’s probably fine to be yourselves around them.”

Similarly, Max had no intention of harassing or mistreating anyone, but he was just as glad he hadn’t asked Luba to attend this meeting.

By design or by accident, Emily wound up sitting next to Tanvi and across from Nick and Pilar in the limo that took them to Clive’s funeral. The four of them had been fairly relaxed getting into the car, but as they got closer to their destination, a respectful silence fell.

Seeking comfort as well as wanting to make a visible gesture, Emily reached over and gripped Tanvi’s hand. Tanvi looked down surprised and almost pulled away, but after a moment, she gripped Emily’s hand back and smiled at her.

When Emily looked across the cabin of the car, Nick seemed puzzled and Pilar had put one black-gloved hand over her mouth, hiding whatever reaction was there. Before anyone could speak, Emily said, “Nick, Pilar, there’s no good time to say this and this is probably worse than most, but Tanvi and I wanted you to know that we’ve started seeing each other.”

Nick looked to Tanvi like he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. His assistant lowered her eyes fractionally. “I don’t believe this will impact my capacity as your personal assistant in any material way, but we’d rather not keep it a secret from you.”

It wasn’t exactly love poetry, but considering Emily hadn’t warned Tanvi she was going to do this, it wasn’t a terrible spur-of-the-moment statement.

“I’m happy for you, both of you.” Nick said quickly, then added. “Surprised, but happy. Kind of speechless actually, but genuinely happy.”

“We’re both very happy for you.” said Pilar. “How long has this been going on?”

“Since Friday.” said Tanvi.

“It was very late when I found out Clive died. I went looking for Dennis, but he was already on his way to England.” filled in Emily. “Tanvi was a lifesafer. She was so sweet to me and ... something just clicked.”

“Congratulations.” Pilar smiled. “Once we’re past this sad event, we should double date.”

“I’d like that.” said Emily.

“We should probably try to do it when I’m off-duty.” said Tanvi. “Or, if you give me at least an hour’s advance notice, I can assemble an ad hoc team capable of handling most requests.”

“All right.” Nick laughed, then added. “Wait. Are you still doing twelve-on, twelve-off shifts with Zola back in New York on Eastern Standard Time?”