Stolen: The Billionaire Decepti(26)

He looked at me for a few seconds and I thought he was going to tell me again that he didn’t want to talk about it. Finally however he said, “Yeah. His father and his father’s father were both big on Wall Street and had investments all over the world. My father made good money as a corporate attorney, but not the kind of money they had made. My grandfather didn’t believe in trust funds and he always told my father that when he died would be when he would get his inheritance. When granddad died, he left most of his money to the church. My father felt like it was a slap in the face. He sold the property that granddad left him and he began to invest that money. Eventually he ended up with this business.”



“Ended up with?” I asked. “It was already an operating business, right… a successful one? Did the owner retire or…”



“No…” Seth looked genuinely sad as he said, “He died.”



“Oh. So then your father bought the business from his heirs?”



Seth picked up his empty drink and looked into the bottom of the glass. This time he signaled for the waitress and ordered another. He didn’t say a word while he waited, he didn’t even look at me. I was beginning to wonder if that was it and he was finished talking. After his drink came and he’d emptied it he said, “I don’t know the exact details. I was away at school. When I came home he already had the business. But I heard things that disturbed me about the acquisition of it. I tried questioning him but if you knew my father, you would know how much easier said than done that was. Over the years, Harlan has filled me in on some of the details. I actually got to the point where I asked him not to tell me anymore. My father pushed and pushed me to get a business degree and take over this company. I didn’t want to work there knowing certain things…”



I raised an eyebrow. I was trying to look confused as I said, “Are you telling me he obtained the company illegally?”



Seth was intoxicated, but not so much that he didn’t realize the implications of what I had just said out loud. He looked around to make sure no one was listening to us and then he said, “No! He was an attorney… a good one. What he did was totally legal. I just have concerns about the ethics of it.”



“What did he do?”



“I don’t know the details, Erin. I just wonder sometimes that since I continue working for him… details or not… am I as bad as he is?” He looked so distressed by that thought that the woman in me who wanted to ruin him was completely over-ruled by the one that wanted to love him. I reached over and took his hand and squeezed it.



“Whatever he did, it sounds to me like you were just a kid at the time. How can you blame yourself for that?”



“I don’t,” he said, squeezing my hand in return. “But I do worry about continuing to amass millions when… when I’m not even sure if we should rightfully be where we are today or not. I’m pretty sure the fact I keep going in and sitting in that CEO chair every day makes me as guilty as he is.”



I was touched that he had opened up to me. I wanted to take him in my arms and make it all better… and I had to remind myself that he was right… If he knew they didn’t deserve what they had, then he had to know someone else had lost out or suffered because of it. He was guilty at least of being selectively ignorant. He lived with James Hunter… he ran his company… he had every opportunity to find out exactly what his father did, so why didn’t he?









CHAPTER ELEVEN









“So he admitted that he knew his father was doing business… unethically?”



Grant and I were sitting on our couch sharing a pizza and having a beer. It was three days after the night Seth had opened up to me. I was still torn about whether or not he had actually admitted that he knew anything. The bottom line to me was that he had a complicated relationship with his father. He knew that James Hunter was not a good man… but he was his father. That had to be a terrible position to be in.



“He admitted that he suspected it. I don’t honestly think he really knows anything. I doubt that James Hunter is the type of man to come right out and admit to anything, even to his son. Seth says that how the family looks outwardly is overly important to him.”



Grant took a bite of his pizza but as he chewed it, I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. After he swallowed and took a swig from his beer he said, “Are you sure that the feelings you have for this guy are not clouding your judgment just a little bit? I mean, he’s the CEO of this company. Don’t you think it would be next to impossible for him to represent, run and maintain this business having no idea where it came from?”