“You’ll never make any money that way, Stone.”
“We’ll do all right.”
“You’ll see that I’ve appointed you Peter’s trustee. I didn’t tell you, because, I suppose, I felt invulnerable, but recently I had a brush with ovarian cancer. They caught it early, but I had to have my ovaries out, and now I’m on hormones. If I get sick again, I’ll give you as much notice as I can, but you could, possibly, find yourself being a father to your son.”
“That would be an honor,” Stone said.
“Considering that you’re his father, it’s more of a duty,” she said. “Maybe he’ll find that out one day, but I don’t want you to tell him. He’s Vance’s son to the world, and that will be an advantage to him, if you help him handle it properly.”
“I can see how it would be.”
“You’re going to have to keep it from him how rich he’s going to be.”
“I expect he may have already figured that out,” Stone said, “and if he hasn’t, the kids at his school are going to tell him.”
“I suppose you’re right. Then we’ll both have to do what we can to keep his feet firmly planted on the ground.”
“One way is not to give him control of his trust until he’s older,” Stone said, “perhaps at thirty-five.”
“That’s a very good idea, and one I’m happy to leave in your hands.”
“Thank you; I’ll try and do right by him.”
“I’d like to bring him to New York to see you,” she said.
“You’d both be very welcome; I’ll look forward to it.”
“Now,” she said, taking another sip of her iced tea, “what are we going to do about this Centurion business?”
“You want my recommendation?”
“Yes, please, and I’ll tell you up front, I’ll follow it. I’m not equipped to deal with this.”
“All right. First, I think that you should not sell your shares. In fact, I think you should buy more.”
“Why?”
“Because Centurion is giving you a better return on your investment that just about anything could. It’s extremely well run and profitable. Right now, you own a third of the shares. I think you should, over the next few years, increase your share to fifty-one percent.”
“My goodness!” Arrington said, sounding a little breathless. “I never thought of controlling the studio! Can I afford to buy that many more shares? Terrence Prince has run up the price, hasn’t he?”
“If we can get one or two owners on our side, that will kill the sale, and the price will go down. There may even be some who would prefer to sell to you at a lower price than to get into bed with Prince.”
“What do you think of him?” she asked.
“I think he’s a shark; maybe even a killer.”
“Then he’ll do just fine in the Virginia hunt country,” she said.
“I’d heard that he’d once bought a house there, then flipped it.”
“Now he’s bought another,” Arrington said. “I’ve sold him mine.”
“Prince is your buyer?”
“I think he bought the place as a way to get next to me and get my Centurion shares,” she said, laughing. “We closed yesterday.”
Stone began to laugh. “That’s wonderful.”