Chapter 18 - THE FAIRMONT NAME WAS THE BAITPriscilla’s greatest fear was not biology alone.
It was name.
Fairmont.
Charles’s family holdings included restrictive old trusts? Modern legal issues aside, some discretionary family trusts used descendants definitions. Donor conception could have raised interpretive disputes decades ago, especially with hostile Edmund.
Priscilla feared Wesley’s claim.
But Charles legally acknowledged birth and intended father. Likely secure.
Still.
Edmund had threatened disinheritance if “outsider child.”
No evidence he knew.
Priscilla carried threat.
When June conceived, she feared future cousins weaponize donor status against board succession, heritage foundations, social standing.
She called Kline solution “continuity.”
The name was bait:
Preserve Fairmont.
Protect Fairmont.
Don’t embarrass Fairmont.
Everyone sacrificed truth.
Wesley decided to step down as CEO? He is wealthy businessman; maybe leads Fairmont Capital. Could be drastic. Better he took leave from family holding board but kept operating business he built. He separated identity.
Press asked whether scandal affects succession.
He answered:
“My daughter’s worth has nothing to do with genetic relationship to any surname.”
Powerful.
Priscilla watched.
Edmund would have hated.
Good.
The Fairmont trust lawyers reviewed:
June legal beneficiary based Wesley's legal parenthood and trust language, not genetics.
No threat.
All fear had been unnecessary legally.
Priscilla cried.
Nadia:
“You violated us to solve problem that didn’t exist.”
“Yes.”
That was perhaps most painful.
The name served as bait Kline used too.
He knew Priscilla desperate.
He framed consultation as preserve legacy.
Charged.
Kline’s business records showed he marketed genetic counseling to wealthy clients using coded language:
“lineage considerations.”
Not necessarily fraud each.
But exploited.
Regulators investigated.
Nadia refused story become “rich people breeding.”
Most patients ordinary.
But in Fairmont case, class and name were central.
Foxmere House later opened archives? Not public.
Wesley moved important family portraits from his own home? Symbolic maybe unnecessary.
He kept Charles photo.
He stopped calling Edmund “Grandfather” with reverence.
June drew family tree at school.
Assignment asked grandparents.
Wesley helped:
Daddy Wesley.
Grandma Priscilla.
Grandpa Charles (deceased).
Biological Kline not included because school family tree social.
Later genetic tree different.
Multiple trees.
May you like
This helped.
Family not one chart.
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