The foundation was supposed to give money to good causes. Children’s hospitals. Food banks. Scholarships.
It did give some money away. About eleven percent. Just enough to keep it legal-looking and get my parents’ picture in the paper.
The rest went out in other ways.
There were “consulting fees” to a company called RMS Advisory, LLC. RMS stood for Richard and Margaret Stone. Two hundred thousand dollars a year.
There were “board retreats” in Paris. Every summer. The board was my parents, Paige, and Lauren.
There was a “gala auction item” purchase from a jeweler on Madison Avenue for forty-two thousand dollars. I found the receipt. It was a diamond tennis bracelet. The same one Paige was wearing in the bridal suite.
There were “event costs” that matched, almost to the dollar, the costs of four very large weddings at four very nice country clubs.
And in 2015, there was a withdrawal straight from Grandpa’s conservatorship account of a hundred and ninety thousand dollars, labeled Education Expense — Granddaughter.
