Chapter 4 - My Trust
My father had created the trust.
That was the first surprise.
Frank Wellman died when I was fifteen.
Heart attack.
No mystery.
No suspicious accident.
I remembered his funeral more clearly than most of my childhood injuries.
He had been quiet.
Worked as an auto-parts distributor.
Avoided fights with Amanda until avoidance became his personality.
Apparently, he had done one thing without her.
At age thirteen, after my knee fracture, he hired an attorney.
Created:
MONICA ELAINE WELLMAN INJURY SETTLEMENT TRUST.
Why?
The supplemental accident policies and a separate liability settlement had produced substantial money.
Not millions initially.
About $410,000 by the time I was thirteen.
Frank believed the funds belonged to me.
He removed Amanda as custodian for future proceeds.
Appointed a bank trustee.
Then he died.
What happened?
The bank merged.
Records transferred.
At eighteen, I should have received notice.
I never did.
At twenty one, partial distribution rights.
Nothing.
Kathleen’s statement showed $740,000 leaving seven years ago.
I was twenty four.
I had already graduated college.
Working my first audit job.
I knew nothing.
My attorney, Laura Chen, requested emergency trust records.
The bank responded within hours because the account number was valid.
Trust status:
TERMINATED.
Termination date:
Seven years earlier.
Reason:
BENEFICIARY REQUEST.
I stared.
“I never requested anything.”
Signature on termination form:
Monica E. Wellman.
Not mine.
Not even close when enlarged.
Witness:
Amanda Wellman.
Successor family representative:
Austin Wellman.
The money went to a checking account under my name.
Opened two days before termination.
Then wired into WRS predecessor company.
I felt physically sick.
Austin had not merely hidden his business.
He had used my identity to fund it.
“How much should the trust have been worth?”
Laura looked at statements.
“If left invested, maybe between nine hundred thousand and 1.1 million at the time of termination, depending on fees.”
“What actually left?”
$742,816.
Some assets had been liquidated earlier.
Where did the difference go?
Fees?
Withdrawals?
We needed more.
Then childhood payouts.
The trust received money from:
Accident policies.
One homeowner liability settlement.
One structured payment from an insurer after my age thirteen injury.
Liability from whose homeowner policy?
My parents’.
Why would their own homeowner insurer pay because I fell beside our pool?
Because the claim alleged a defective pool deck.
Contractor negligence.
Settlement:
$260,000.
Was the deck defective?
Maybe.
But the medical note said I may have been pushed.
By whom?
Rachel had already seen:
Austin signed as witness.
Amanda guardian.
I needed the full statement.
Hospital legal sent police a scan.
Detective Hill later summarized after attorney approval.
At thirteen, I originally told triage:
“Austin shoved me because I wouldn’t give him money.”
Then Amanda entered.
Statement changed:
I slipped.
Austin’s signed witness account supported slip.
I looked at Laura.
“He broke my knee before.”
She said:
“The record indicates you accused him. It does not prove the accusation by itself.”
Correct.
Then another note.
Nurse documented bruising on my upper arms.
Amanda said:
“From swimming.”
No CPS report completed.
Leonard Vale canceled social-work referral.
Why?
We still did not know.
Then my father’s attorney.
Retired but alive.
Samuel Price.
Laura found him in Carlsbad.
He remembered Frank.
“Your father was worried.”
About what?
“Your mother’s insurance policies.”
There.
Amanda had taken out five supplemental accident policies on me between ages six and thirteen.
Not illegal.
Parents can insure children.
But coverage increased before some injuries.
Samuel told Frank:
Cancel them.
Frank did.
Then died eighteen months later.
After his death, Amanda reopened two policies.
I had one more injury at sixteen.
A broken finger.
Payout:
$12,000.
No major injuries after I left for college.
No more payouts.
Pattern.
I whispered:
“Do you think she hurt me for money?”
Samuel answered carefully.
“Your father suspected at least one injury was not accidental. He never told me he could prove deliberate injury for insurance.”
Important.
Suspicion.
Not certainty.
Then:
“He did believe Austin was hurting you and Amanda was covering.”
“Why didn’t he leave?”
Samuel looked ashamed for a dead man.
“I asked him that.”
“What did he say?”
“He was afraid she’d take you and Austin would become worse.”
So he stayed.
And failed differently.
Then Samuel added:
“Frank left you a letter.”
My chest tightened.
“Where?”
“With the trust documents.”
Those documents had been released when the trust terminated.
To the beneficiary.
According to bank records.
Pickup signature:
Monica Wellman.
Not me.
Security camera long gone.
But authorized companion on the appointment:
Amanda Wellman.
My mother had taken my trust.
May you like
My father’s letter.
And whatever truth he had tried to leave me.
