**** Chapter Six – Getting down to Business ****

Morning came early with David walking through the door at 7:30am. I was barely awake only in blue jeans and a sweatshirt and had only just put the coffee to cooking. I preferred old fashioned percolated coffee or espresso; this morning it was the old school stove top percolator at work for me. I splashed water on my face, wished for a shower and turned to engage an energetic David. I didn’t get my first word out before the door open and Traci came in carrying a bag of what I guessed to be pretend food from a popular fast-food joint.

On their demand the first order of business was to display the actual ticket so they both could confirm this wasn’t some sort of sick joke I was pulling on them. So I brought out the ticket, I had it in a plastic baggie to protect it and I held it as the two of them viewed each side of it. I had signed it of course and I had been damn careful to study my drivers license signature and passport signature before signing to avoid any mistakes.

That being done, I was allowed coffee and food and as I partook of my morning sustenance while Traci ran down the day’s scheduled events. Both David and Traci had taken the day off from work, they had called out sick and made the appropriate excuses. We apparently had a meeting scheduled at 10:30am with a lawyer, a CPA and a tax attorney. Then at noon we had an appointment with the lottery office downtown followed by meetings with two different bank managers and finishing up the day by viewing an office space and interviewing a potential fund manager.

The important event was the noontime appointment at the Lottery Office, this was the big reveal moment in which I presented the winning ticket and proved who I was. It took all of ten minutes and then David and his team took over and I simply stood back and observed the events. Traci surprised me by handling the mandatory publicity portion with skill and aplomb and in the end the actual winner announcement with my name and face attached wouldn’t happen for four weeks. Traci and David had bought me some breathing room and hopefully I’d be well out of town before any of that occurred; the stories of horror surrounding big ticket lottery winners were many and I hoped to avoid all of that.

The next two days were a blur of meetings, fine printed documents and me signing paperwork. My suddenly numerous bank accounts were fat with the almost 60% of my winnings that the taxman allowed me to keep. I paid the taxes with a smile, it was a huge number but it was far less than it could have been without David’s CPA and Tax Attorney and my debt to the government was fully and legally paid. I was the silent partner in a new business that was standing up. Surprisingly, we already had two other small but new clients on board, so David was earning his keep.

The fourth day was the biggest day of all, Trish was about to see a large amount of money wired into her bank account and at the same time have a lawyer show up at her door with legal documents to sign concerning the educational trust funds and individual trust funds for her and the boys. I was waiting by the phone for the call that was sure to come. As sure as clockwork I got a call from Trish five minutes after my lawyer left her house, she was beside herself and apparently couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry. I had orchestrated this event very carefully for I knew that if I was heavy handed or tried to explain the trusts myself I would end up insulting her in some way or form. I had a knack for doing that. In the end it was finished, more than a decade of good life with Trish and eventually destroyed by me was wrapped up and stored away. From this point forward it would probably be nothing but cards on holidays and birthdays.

The next series of calls went out to my surviving family members, those that I had regular and amiable contact with anyways. David’s new team had spent the past three days working furiously on my requests and in the end they had been mostly successful. Each sibling and my mother each awoke the morning of the fifth day to find a cool million dollars had been deposited into their bank account. Each also received a call from Traci advising them that all of their known debts were in the process of being retired and how that was being accomplished. Two of my siblings owned businesses and they received special consideration in the form of a new partner who brought in a considerable cash infusion. One specific sister was financially disciplined and basically lived debt free, she got a considerable account at David’s Wealth Management Firm; she also got a considerable bit of cash to reward her for her discipline.

I had done all of this and I still couldn’t see the top of my cash pile, it was an amazing time. As I said, I was having a lot of fun.