Page 163 - Too Much and Never Enough - Mary L. Trump

to me, I want you to make sure Marla will be okay.”
“Sure, Donald. Just tell me what you want me to do.”
“Get her ten million dollars.”
I thought, Holy shit, that’s a lot of money! at the same moment that Rob
said, “What a cheap bastard.”
Rob laughed at the memory as I sat there stunned, wondering how much
money those people had. Last I’d heard, $10 million would have been one- third of my grandfather’s entire estate.
“Around the same time, Donald called to tell me I was one of his three favorite people,” Maryanne said. “Apparently he forgot he had three children.” (Tiffany and Barron were still to come.)
We never met with Rob again, but Fritz and I, separately and together, had lunch occasionally with Maryanne. For the first time in my life, I got to know my aunt. Not since I’d spent time with Donald while I was writing his book had I felt a little bit as though I were part of the family.
A couple of months after my aunts’ April 2017 birthday party, I was in my living room lacing up my sneakers when the front doorbell rang. I don’t know why I answered it. I almost never did. Seventy-five percent of the time it was a Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon missionaries. The rest of the time, it was somebody wanting me to sign a petition.
When I opened the door, the only thing that registered was that the woman standing there, with her shock of curly blond hair and dark-rimmed glasses, was someone I didn’t know. Her khakis, button-down shirt, and messenger bag placed her out of Rockville Centre.
“Hi. My name is Susanne Craig. I’m a reporter for the New York Times.”
Journalists had stopped contacting me a long time before. With the exception of David Corn from Mother Jones and somebody from Frontline, the only other person to leave a message before the election had been from Inside Edition. Nothing I had to say about my uncle would have mattered before November 2016; why would anybody want to hear from me now?
The futility of it annoyed me, so I said, “It is so not cool that you’re showing up at my house.”
“I understand. I’m sorry. But we’re working on a very important story about your family’s finances, and we think you could really help us.”
“I can’t talk to you.”