Stolen:The Billionaire Deception(15)

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?"



I hated it when Grant expressed the private thoughts I had but didn't   want to even hear myself. "Next to impossible …  maybe. But if he really   didn't want to know, I guess he could just close his eyes to that part   of it."



"Then doesn't that make him guilty still?"



"Guilty of what?" I asked. I knew the answer but I felt so compelled to defend him.



"You can be guilty by a lot of acts, honey. The act of omission,   feigning ignorance when others are being hurt by something someone else   is doing …  looking the other way … "



I looked at Grant and for the first time, I spoke the truth out loud, "I   don't want him to be guilty of anything. I want to find out that it  was  all James and Seth knew nothing about a little girl whose  inheritance  was stolen away." I was crying now and as the tears rolled  silently down  my cheeks I went on, "If he knows something and he didn't  do anything  about it …  then I'm falling in love with an unethical man."  I was sobbing  and Grant put down his beer and held open his arms. I  moved into them  and we sat there on the couch for a long time with me  sobbing and him  petting my hair and shushing me and telling me it was  all going to be  okay. I didn't believe him. How was it going to be  okay? Either I was  going to lose everything I'd worked for or I was  going to lose Seth.





***





SETH





I woke up Sunday morning with the same thought on my mind that I'd had   every day for the past two months: Erin. I couldn't get her out of my   mind and the strangest part of all was that I hadn't even had her in my   bed yet. For me, that was an oddity. Erin was the first woman I'd ever   met that I had found worth waiting for. I typically met women who were   ready for my bed as soon as they heard my name. The Hunter name carried  a  lot of clout in New York's circles of high society. Any number of  women  were eager to get close to me. It brought them one step closer to  my  name and my father's money. That was how I thought of it …  my  father's  money. The money I made as CEO of the company I spent without  qualms. I  worked hard and I felt deserving of it. The money in the  trust fund that  my father set up for me and allowed me access to on my  twenty-fifth  birthday was his money, not mine. I had yet to touch it.



I got out of bed and shook off thoughts of my father, replacing them   with the much more pleasant ones of Erin. I took my shower and dressed   in anticipation of the day we were going to spend together. This was my   weekend to choose and since she'd had an obligation with her roommate  on  Saturday night, I had chosen tennis at the country club on Sunday.  It  would afford me an entire day with her and if things went as I  hoped, a  room at the club would be waiting for us when it was over.         

     



 



I picked up Erin outside of her apartment at ten a.m. I found it strange   that I still hadn't been inside her apartment, or that I hadn't met  the  roommate she talked with such fondness about. I didn't get the  feeling  that she was hiding anything sinister. It was almost as if  whatever she  hadn't shared with me was too painful and it kept her from  crossing that  final line that would bring us together as a couple. I  had some painful  secrets of my own, however so I wasn't in a position  to demand answers.  I was certain of how I felt for her, however. All I  needed to do now  was make sure she was certain of how she felt about  me.