Power Games

Danny gets up and heads home, reluctantly agreeing to play along like he doesn’t know anything which was Adam and Mitch’s idea rather than being my idea where I’d prefer, he stays away from Tash right now.

“Are we sure that it is wise to let him home with Tash right now?” I ask as Adam shrugs obviously thinking that it might not be the best idea but won’t admit it right now. “He won’t do anything to harm or hurt the kids right now because they are the most important people in the world” Adam has a tone of hope in his voice rather than being confident about it.

“I hope it all works out alright,” I say getting up and starting to head back to my place; “Where are you going?” Adam says to me as I head towards his front door. “Back home, I’ve got a headache and want to get to sleep,” I say wanting to head to sleep because I’m exhausted and just want to get home. “Spare room,” Adam says with his commanding teacher’s voice.

“I don’t need to stay here tonight, Adam, I’m fine just to take a couple of Panadol and then go to sleep,” I say as I head towards the door.  “But what happens if someone turns up during the middle of the night and you’re out sleeping what are you going to do then?”

Adam says to me as I stand there. “I’ll be fine you know that” starting to head out the door Adam grabs me “Come on Isaac don’t be stupid you’re not in any state to defend and we just want to make sure that you’re ok”

Mitch stands up “Come on Isaac, just for tonight alright?” he says almost pleading with me to stay with Adam. “With all due respect, I’d prefer to sleep in my own bed and just be in my own house” I stand there and Adam doesn’t look happy “I guess I’ll be here if anything happens” his reluctance is plain for everybody to see

“I’ll stay at Isaac’s place then,” Mitch says as he stands up and shrugs, clearly neither of them wants to leave me alone tonight. “I’ve got the spare bed made and he can sleep there,” I say as I walk out the door, stubborn as ever about needing a babysitter for the night

Mitch follows me over “You alright man?” he asks as I am clearly frustrated. “What do you think? I’ve got a massive headache; a swollen jaw and I’m exhausted and just want to go to sleep” unlocking the door, I go inside and turn the light on, everything looks good and I take a couple of Panadol and head to bed straight away. Mitch heads back to talk to Adam for a while and says that he will be back shortly. I fall asleep almost instantly as Mitch quickly ducks back to his place to change his clothes and comes back to my place so he can crash on the spare bed. If he had to stay then I would have preferred that he slept with me but I would’ve been too out of it.

The next morning I’m up early as Mitch is still snoring in the spare room, my jaw a bit better than it was last night but still as sore as anything. I sit on the couch and get my laptop and start reading about my father’s campaign and the resignation of Brendan from the campaign. Sitting and reading for a little bit I get up and get ready for the gym, my face still bruised and everything as Mitch gets up and looks at me annoyed.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he says to me as he wanders out of the spare room “To the gym and then to work,” I say starting to go around my normal routine before Mitch stops me “You’re going nowhere alright unless it’s coming to my office, Lorna is away at the over 60s ladies Bowls tournament so I need some assistance around my office,” he says laughing.

“So what are my options then, stay home or go with you instead of going to work?” I ask as he laughs and nods “Exactly right Isaac, you heard from the doctor that you might have delayed concussion so we’re going to keep our eye on you today”. Begrudgingly I agree not to go to work which without knowing it at the time is the best thing that could have happened.

Mitch heads into the office and I sit on my couch accessing what I can from the work server, I try to do some work when a car pulls up outside the front of my place and a well-dressed woman walks towards the door and knocks on it. I have no idea who this person is but I go to the door and answers it.

“Brendan? I’m Julia Clayton from Progress Realty Sapphire Ridge, I’m here about the listing following our conversation on the phone last night” she says as I look confused. “Sorry but I think you have the wrong person and place because I’m not Brendan”

She stands there with a stunned look on her face “Mr Keppel said that he would be meeting me here at 11 am so I just assumed that was you, I’m terribly sorry” she says heading back to the car. “Hang on, did you say Mr Keppel… Brendan Keppel?” she turns around and looks at me “I’m sorry, I’ve divulged too much information already” before walking away.

I chase her up “Hang on, Brendan Keppel is my brother which is why I asked,” she turns around “oh… well I think you need to speak with him, excuse me a moment” she answers her phone out of my earshot. I head back inside as she stays in the car for a few minutes as I make myself a coffee and then head back to the couch. I don’t bother checking whether the estate agent has gone or not as I finish off the work that I can do

I get a phone call from a Yellow Peak number that I don’t recognise and answer it “Hello?” with trepidation in my voice. “Isaac? It’s Lorraine Upton from across the street, Adam gave me your number” I let out a sigh of relief “Oh yes, Lorraine sorry I didn’t realise that Adam had given me your number”.

“I’m not sure if you know or not but a well-dressed lady and another gentleman are around the back of your house, they were parked out the front for a while” I get up and have a look and notice a second car behind where the real estate agent is still parked.

“Thanks, Lorraine, I’m actually home so I can have a look,” I say as I get up and wander around the back of the house. “Who’s there?” I say wandering around the back as I spot Julia with Brendan.

“Can I help you with something?” they both turn around and look at me Brendan stands there “No help, Julia is just doing a valuation and then going organise the listing for selling the house,” he says looking at me with a smarmy grin.

“Excuse me?” I say looking across at them, shocked because this is my house and has been since I moved out to Yellow Peak. Brendan looks at me “You don’t actually think you own this house do you, bro, you forget that it’s actually owned by the Keppel trust and you know that I manage those for Dad so I can sell the house because it’s not yours” he stands there trying to bait me for a response which I don’t give him.

I shake my head and walk off and head back inside and lock the front door and get on the phone to Mitch “Hey man, I need your help desperately Brendan is here with some estate agent and she’s organised to list the house for sale, can you come over after they’ve gone because surely that’s illegal?” I ask as Mitch agrees to come around during lunch to check on the situation.

I watch as both Brendan and the estate agent wait to come inside but with the door locked, they can’t get in and I won’t let them in. She eventually leaves and Brendan waits outside until she goes and then knocks on the door again wanting to come inside. “Go away Brendan or I’m calling the cops” he doesn’t let up on knocking on the door.

“You won’t want to call the cops because maybe someone could provide them information on a certain stolen crashed car on Green Hills Road” I realise that he is serious and I let him inside, it’s probably not the smartest idea but he wasn’t ever going to leave.

I open the door and Brendan comes in and sits at the table, “Coffee?” I ask him as he nods and I make one for him. “So, are you going to tell me why you are here?” I put the coffee down in front of him as sits there and looks at me “You really don’t know why I’m here after what we talked about this morning”

Sitting down opposite him “What is the true reason that you came out here, it’s not to sell the house that is quite clearly mine” I say as he sits there and looks at me “You might have signed off on this but again like I said the house isn’t technically yours, it belongs to the Keppel Trust and I’m the controller of that trust and I can take control of it and technically cut off from the trust, you have no ownership of this house”.

“So, what, you’re selling this and then taking the money that is mine? After misappropriating the funds of the trust so more fraud yet again?” I say still sitting there as he looks uncomfortable. “I don’t know what you did but I hope that you’re happy that you are ruining the family name again,” he says not getting the fact that he is on a losing slope and probably not realising it.

“Ok bro, that line is getting old” rolling my eyes “So what do you actually think that you are going to get out of selling the place, pushing me back into Grantham into the clutches of the family so that you can get me into trouble again and then succeed at wanting me to be a failure?”

Brendan laughs “Of course because it’s all about Isaac, the kid who couldn’t appreciate what he had, wanted to be everybody’s mate, the life of the party and get every for nothing” he feels really confident about everything.

“You know what bro, since coming out to Yellow Peak I’ve realised what the sense of achievement can actually do for you and every piece of furniture in this house I’ve bought myself or built it with the wood that you see out the back,” I say as he looks around. “You know with all the woodwork skills that I learnt sitting out the back watching Grandad build and then during Woodwork classes in school” a sense of passion and proving myself in what I am trying to say. “You know, all those times where Grandad wanted to pass on all his expertise in Woodworking and that you chose not to do it because you were always off with Natasha partying every afternoon and night instead” I sit there looking at him.

“Natasha who you had call me yesterday afternoon to try and get me out of town because your plan wasn’t fucking working and then you were getting desperate and thought by using her to manipulate me by using my friends as victims in all this,” I say getting angrier but keeping my cool so that I don’t give him what he wants.

Brendan sits there reluctant now to speak about anything “Alright fine, you got me Isaac I used Tash to try and get you out of town, but honestly, if you supposedly cared about these people then wouldn’t you want to be protecting them from bringing our family dramas here to this shit hole”.

“The only person that has brought drama here is you, by turning up here banging on my front door, by you getting Tash involved in all this when you know that she has a family here,” I say as he sits there and for the first time I can see that he has a sense of remorse on his face. “Tell me the honest truth for once in your life Brendan, this wasn’t about keeping me out of trouble to protect the campaign and Dad, this was all about making sure that you were creating a pathway and ensure that you could take over the minute everything finished”.

There is no denial from Brendan as he gets up “Thanks for the coffee Isaac, But I better be going, Julia said she’d be back around on Monday around 12:30ish, so don’t lock her out this time or I’ll get someone in to move you out” he says walking away.

“Hey Brendan, last thing go via Tash’s place, pick her up and take her back to Grantham and stay there with her and don’t step foot in Yellow Peak again or else,” I say looking at him “Don’t think that you’re the only person with weapons in your arsenal to win this battle”.

He leaves just as Mitch turns up, “Was that who I think it was?” he says as he gets out of the car and I nod “What was he doing here?” he asks me as we head inside. We walk inside the house “Selling the house” I say bluntly as Mitch turns confused and looks at me.

“There was an estate agent here at about 9:30ish asking for Brendan and I didn’t put two and two together, just assuming she went to the wrong house until saying that Mr Keppel had an appointment” I explain to him “Which is why I needed your help because he reckons that he can sell it and I needed your help urgently because the house is in my name”.

Mitch sits at the table “Explain what his logic was?” he asks me as I go into explaining; “He said that even though I paid for it, it came out of the trust money which is mine but because it’s the trust, he claimed that as the manager of the trust, that it was technically his house and that he could do what he wanted with it”. I go and get the paperwork of the house for Mitch and he goes through it with detail making notes and searching through things on his iPad.

His face drops for a moment “What is it, Mitch?” I say worried as he tells me to sit down even though I keep pacing around the living room and kitchen. “He’s technically right, the house is in the name of the Keppel Trust and as the controlling manager of the trust, legally he can sell any assets that the trust owns and the house is just that it’s an asset that the trust owns” I let out a sigh as he says all that.

“Fucking hell, that means that everything I’ve done has been for nothing and he wins again,” I say as I get really frustrated. Mitch looks at me “There is something that you can do but I mean it’s going to need to take something extremely brave of you”.

I sit there and look at him, “What is it?” I say looking across at him worried about what it could be. “You are going to have to talk to your father, your brother may be the manager of the Keppel trust but your father can override any decision that Brendan makes, it’s in the clauses of the trust agreement; So he essentially will be the one to make or break this situation”.

I sigh and talk through my options with Mitch which are very few, I could just let Brendan win and then become homeless without the money or I can talk to my father. I ask Mitch for some alone time which he reluctantly agrees to give me as he heads off and I go for a walk.

My walk is alright without exactly clearing the mind of everything and get home and sit down for a while before getting out my phone and ringing my father's number which goes straight to his new temporary campaign manager. “Hello, I’m just ringing to arrange a meeting with Mr Keppel for as soon as possible,” I say trying to request a meeting with my father, having to go through all the channels.

“Look, Mr Keppel isn’t taking meetings at present and you will need to make an appointment through the official channels and he is not doing any media interviews,” the staff member says down the phone talking like the usual campaign staff robots

“I don’t want a media interview, I just want to be able to talk to my father directly ok, tell him it’s Isaac,” I say with the feeling like I’m talking to a brick wall. “I’m sorry but as I said, Mr Keppel is busy at the moment and will not be taking meetings with anyone this week”

Letting out a frustrated sigh I raise my voice “Ask him now, once you say that Isaac wants to see him he will know what it means” the line drops silent before I get hold music for a few minutes before the person returns “Mr Keppel will be available for a meeting with you, somebody will contact you with the details”.

I get off the phone and just sit on the couch, taking another Panadol and then having a nap on the couch until my phone rings and see my father's number pop up on the display “Isaac, You needed to speak with me urgently? He says to me as it feels weird talking to my father

“I need to see you as soon as possible tomorrow,” I say to him as he lets out a sigh “Ok, tomorrow morning at around 10:30 ok with you?” he says as I’m surprised, he agreed to the meeting. “Yes that’s fine, but I need you to ensure that Brendan is not at the meeting ok?”

Dad reluctantly agrees to it “Come to the house at 10:30 and it can be a meeting between the two of us”. I get off the phone feeling weird about setting up the meeting but I know that this is what is going to finally finish the plan and hopefully get everything off my back.