The Trillionaire Chapter Eleven: Each Man's Prison

The itinerary for Tori was simple; to travel, every and anywhere for as long as she could tolerate it. The trouble was that roaming about the planet without any specific purpose for long enough makes a person feel a strangling sense of loss. What am I doing here? Does this matter? Why can't I be happy? Within four years nearly every continent was represented by a stamp in Tori's passport book and yet she felt like she was still in her mind as much as she ever was. She still worried that her financial influence could bring dangerous attention to her or worse harm those she meant to help. Her money was a pendulum hanging over her head. At times she wanted to shake the hand of a service worker, say that they could switch places and be done with it, but her fear prevented her from doing so.

It was only after she requested a meal of overly seasoned freeze-dried noodles mixed with cheap ketchup for the sauce that she finally knew what it was to be a broken person. Tori was served exactly as she asked for. The chef even properly plated it on a flimsy paper dish with a side of watered-down orange powdered drink in a styrofoam cup. However, when she swallowed a single taste of it, a panic attack ignited within Tori. Her frantic breaths were a storm of bitter emotions that made tears pour down her face as she clung to her ornate dinner table sobbing. If only, if only, if only she had her former life back. Her life with her mother, her life with her friends, her life that belonged to herself. Instead, she was always in some room that was filled with people who meant nothing to her or she was alone completely both had become torture to her. Nothing was real anymore. All of the niceties were stifling reminders of that.

The waitstaff quietly excused themselves from Tori's presence as she exhausted herself in her sea of lament. To self-soothe, she used a mental tactic of collecting her thoughts privately. Of it, there was only acknowledgment of the world but no emotional resonance for Tori. She knew what she enjoyed; food, art, history, and what she despised; her loneliness, the never-ending pretenses, and her inability to experience anything like a true native. Tori found that she was currently either too prim to enjoy the ruggedness of a place or that it was not rustic enough to her liking. It all had the same conclusion for her no matter the experience, and that was that she could not take pleasure in what she had because she was not who she started out being. This had the effect of causing her to be unable to assimilate to her circumstances. Tori wanted to laugh like she once did, but she couldn't even force it out of herself for show.

Tori decided it was obvious that she suffered burnout from the nomadic life she had been living. It was time to remedy it by a to return to the States. She rented a suitable residence in Los Angeles for a time, although it did not comfort her. On a mission to reconnect with her past, Tori decided to look up to all of the people she once smiled at the thought of and those who at least held her interest, like Kal.

The first report Tori received was on Molly, whom Tori held most dear to her heart as she knew her when her mother was still alive. This report came in long before all the others, as if to warn Tori of the trouble she was reaching out toward. Unfortunately, Molly's circumstances were harsh milestones of a life lived recklessly. The documents reflected repeated sentences in and out of prison, most recently stemming from a child neglect charge. According to the case file, Molly's addiction got the better of her resulting in Molly neither regularly feeding nor taking her children to school for an extended period. When child protective services came to investigate after a concerned citizen made note of the situation, they found the children in squalor. One of them needed immediate medical care for a cut to their hand from attempting to make dinner for their siblings, that child was only six years old. The wound was festering by the time help intervened. Tori was appalled, she knew Molly had her faults, however, it was plain to see that the person Molly was had disappeared somewhere over the years. Tori was torn between feeling like she could have used her wealth to prevent this and also being infuriated that a once functional person had stooped so low.

Molly's mug shot was what a person would expect. A woman with open sores on her face from her drug of choice, dirty and damaged in expression. The findings on Jesse were no better. He was incarnated on a domestic assault charge, one of many in his history. Kal the most tumultuous of Tori's relationships had committed suicide after a failed attempt to blackmail a midranking military official involving prostitutes. Tori wondered if it was well-plotted murder, as she assumed that Kal was too narcissistic to ever harm himself or consider he may have gone too far. In Kal's mind, there were never consequences he must face because he assumed he was always going to get away scot-free with his misdeeds. She felt she would never have closure to understanding his actions with her. It was also disheartening to be informed that Kal had at least four children with various partners who would never know their father. Tori was not shocked to find that one of those children was legally deemed a product of rape from one of Kal's mercenary jobs after he had left her employment. Tori shook her head in disgust at the thought of the man she once trusted with her life.

Tori was so put off by what she could not undo among her former associates that she decided that the United States was too painful of a place for her to remain. There was one thing that she did do that had some amount of solace for her. She visited her mother's grave. Her mind never stopped turning over how much she wished that her mother could have been spared from her untimely death. The one person she needed the most throughout her life was the person taken so soon.

Standing there at the site was utter sorrow. Tori's mind, her body, and her soul could not take another moment of pain. Tori had to leave this place that was nothing but the deepest of heartache for her. She turned away and signaled to her guard to get her out of there. He ran to pull the car around without a word. It was too much, everything had been too much for too long. They went straight to the airport. Tori had to go where her memories could not cripple her, a place where she had no emotional attachment. She fled to her father's estate in Sweden to settle in until she found something that brought her happiness elsewhere. As for her past, she had everything from her old trailer shipped to her new residence but left her mother where she was buried. Tori could not bring herself to disturb the woman's bones. Her mother had endured enough while she was alive. Tori could not betray her by bringing her back to the place where her father had tormented them both.

The estate was not so lonely of a place as New York had been for Tori. She had the company of a trusted associate, Mr. Peeters who was a cold yet, helpful presence in her life. Mr. Peeters in no time at all became the only person Tori bothered to have a sincere conversation with if a person could consider regular business meetings and passing pleasantries sincere. This was why it was so dreaded for Tori knowing his ill health was taking its final toll on the man.

Mr. Peeters had a stroke just after the anniversary of her father's death. While in a convalescent hospital, he confided in Tori that he knew that she and her father's blood types were incompatible for the blood draw all those years ago because he had tampered with the paperwork himself. Tori was confused and asked him why and how. He explained that when he put in for the original search of any of her father's children, he made the search particularly broad to include any blood relation. Tori's father had never had any biological children that lived past infancy, due to a genetic disorder, maple syrup urine disease. Tori was a distant cousin to the man. Again perplexed Tori pushed the dying Mr. Peeters for an answer. He in turn continued by telling her that he was afraid that the money from the estate would be used for evil deeds by someone who understood all that it was truly worth. When he saw the naive Tori as a match for a relative he paid unknowing people to adjust the findings to suit his purpose. Tori did have other relatives on her father's side, many actually, but Mr. Peeters had shielded them from Tori because they were manipulative, malicious individuals. This revelation was very taxing on Mr. Peeters to explain and he requested that Tori take her to leave of him for the day when he had finished.

In her estate that evening, Tori mulled the newly acquired information that Mr. Peeters had imparted to her. Tori was both relieved and startled by it all. Mr. Peeters had correctly pegged her as a useful idiot. Yet, there she was middle-aged and so very alone. She couldn't tell if she had her life taken from her or given to her by what Mr. Peeters had done. Would she have become just like Molly if she had stayed in the trailer park? Did she now have to worry that her father's side of the family would find out her secret? What would become of her when Mr. Peeters inevitably died? The man was already in his early nineties. Tori took Mr. Peeters's revelation to form a plan of action with him during his final days alive.

There at the estate, they decide that Tori is to stay on as her father had, hidden and alone. Few knew who she truly was and fewer so who was meant to be in her shoes. Not that it mattered, for the most part, all of the other candidates for her father's wealth were people who would have used the money for nefarious purposes before dying of drug overdoses within a few short years, as had already happened numerous times before Tori arrived. Tori felt uncomfortable with the idea of taking another person's birthright. Mr. Peeters explained the people he had wronged would go after her for his misdirection, with a vengeance if the rightful heirs were ever informed, resulting in her need to keep the secret as it was. Tori now had lost her loneliness and replaced it with terror each night she lay in her bed not sure of what was to come of her. She was in a worse place for her being used as a pawn, and she now envied Molly's station over her own.

On the day that Mr. Peeters died, the morning was cool even for the fall. He passed in his sleep, the best that Tori could have hoped for. He had taught her so much during each moment with her and given her so much to fear. His law firm in the city was already informed of his passing before Tori had to concern herself with any follow-up on her part. In his discreetly purposeful fashion, Mr. Peeters organized his testament perfectly. Not an item of his was left undecided of where it was to go. Boxes of office files were delivered to Tori's estate on the day of his passing. Nothing personal to remember the man by only business, because that was who Mr. Peeters was at the core of his being, a man who lived and died by his work. As much as it pained Tori to have to do it, she had Mr. Kenton take over Mr. Peeter's duties as her attorney, although he would remain in New York, unlike Mr. Peeters who preferred Sweden as his primary residence.

It was then that Tori lived the rest of her life being the lead manager of her estate. In those file boxes, she found Mr. Peeters to have left detailed notes going back years on how to handle her living situation, as well as a list of his trusted connections. Forever alone, forever fighting to keep her estate out of the hands of the corrupt, depraved, or sadistic. Her isolation consumed her totally, but exactly to her liking. Tori became always unresting. She finally understood her mother's choice; to give it all up for the person she cared about the most or to stay and become a shadow to serve the highest bidder. Tori knew she had been loved, she also understood she could never love anyone either. The cost would be too great. She must and would serve her purpose, to protect, to preserve, to carry on until she found another soul to take her place when she was too old and grey, as Mr. Peeters had, may he rest in peace.