Trump Tower by Jeffrey Robinson Read Free Book Online

day.”
    â€œOf course, he’s busy. He runs that whole department, and he has a wonderful practice and two gorgeous, gorgeous children.”
    â€œAnd a wife you can’t always stand.”
    Hattie shrugged, “Maybe not my cup of tea two or three days a week, but she’s been a good mother to those gorgeous little children.”
    â€œWho are not so little and, frankly, not necessarily so gorgeous.”
    â€œThey’re still my grandchildren.”
    â€œSo are Zoey and Max,” he reminded her. “But my brother’s children can do no wrong. And my sister’s children are royalty.”
    â€œI never said anything of the kind. But when was the last time your children came to stay with their grandmother? In fact, when was the last time you came to stay with your mother?”
    â€œI’m here with you now.”
    â€œNo, you’re in some fancy place and you schlep me over to see you. Could it hurt to come and see me?”
    He sighed in exasperation. “Mother, we can’t keep going round and round with this. Right now, your money . . . your shares in the company . . . are not safe. If I blow this deal, you could lose a lot of money. We both could. So we’re putting your shares, your money, into another company. I’m protecting you.” He begged, “Mother, please, sign the damn papers.”
    She gave him an angry look, then said to Bobby, “Give me a pen,” and showed her total disdain by mumbling as she signed.
    â€œThank you.” Zeke leaned over and tried to kiss his mother.
    She moved away. “So now what? I live on my social security?”
    Bobby put his hand on Hattie’s arm. “I promise you, everything is the same. Nothing has changed. You have nothing to worry about.”
    â€œOf course not.” She stood up. “Because my daughter and her husband and my other son will always look after me, no matter what.”
    â€œYou’re right, mother.” He stood up too, and signaled to a valet standing on the verandah that his mother needed her car. “As long as your daughter and her husband and your other son . . . the doctor . . . if they can remember your phone number, I’m sure they’ll do what they can for you.”
    She started walking toward the main house.
    Zeke hurried up to her and took her arm. They walked like that, not speaking, through the house and out to the front driveway.
    A Mercedes was already there with a chauffeur holding open the rear door.
    Zeke leaned over and kissed her. “I love you. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. And . . . I love you.”
    She nodded and got into the car.
    He gave her a little wave.
    Just as the chauffeur was closing the door, she reminded him, “Jay Leno would never do this to his mother.”
    Bobby walked up to Zeke and waved at Hattie as the car pulled away. “Call your sister. Maybe your mother will believe her.”
    â€œI refuse to cater to her bullshit. I’ve got to go. Thanks for handling this.”
    â€œThat’s what lawyers are for.”
    â€œI wish she’d understand.”
    â€œMothers don’t understand. They accept.”
    Zeke sighed and nodded. “Speaking of accepting . . . when do we hear back on the Sovereign Shields buyout?”
    â€œIt’s only now about numbers. They’re close.”
    â€œI hope it doesn’t get in the way of this other thing. Deals coming from two different directions meet in the middle and . . . boom.”
    â€œStop worrying.”
    â€œI’m my mother’s son.”
    Sometime after Zeke and Bobby started putting together the complex deal that could take Z from being just another big agency into the stratosphere as a global entertainment industry powerhouse, Zeke had been in negotiations to buy the Sovereign Shields Sports Agency, the last vestige of the once-famous Gerald Shields’ sports empire.
    Forty years ago, Shields had been a visionary, much