Stolen: Business or Pleasure Read online

  always wanted. I may not have gone about things the conventional way but everything I ever did was with my family’s best interest in mind. I wanted that company for you, Seth and for my grandchildren. You can talk about how I got it in the first place and hold that against me, or you can look at the benefits you reaped from it. You can remember the long days I put in working to rebuild it after it became ours. I didn’t sit back and live off of someone else’s labor… I worked for it all.”

  “But… it wasn’t yours to take Dad, and I can’t be okay with that.”

  “Why Seth? Because it goes against your morals? Or because it goes against hers? Who is she to tell you how you should think and what you should believe? She used you to get what she wanted son; I hope that I’m wrong, but I just don’t see this lasting between you and her. Then what are you left with? Not a legacy for your children, that’s for sure.”

  I didn’t answer that. I suppose it was a rhetorical question anyways. My mind suddenly went back to Grant and my suspicions that there was more to that relationship than Adele wanted me to know. Dad was right… she did use me and she admitted it. I wonder how many nights she left work and went home and talked to Grant about what a fool she was making of me. Maybe she was with him all along… and she still is. Maybe she’s still making a fool out of me. When we got to the ninth hole I finally asked him, “What is it that you think I should do, Dad… or that you want me to do?”

  “I think that you need to stop thinking with your head down south and start using that Ivy League brain of yours. Just do me one favor son; keep a close eye on her. I think you’ll realize on your own eventually that you can’t trust her. When that happens…when it sinks in… get our company back.”

  I hated that what he was saying affected me so much. I hated that it made me have doubts about Adele… or did I already have them and his words only perpetuated it?

  ~

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ~

  ADELE

  Seth was gone when Grant and I got back from our run on Saturday morning. I had kind of expected that he would want to go home and shower and change… or that he might have things to tend to on his day off. What I hadn’t expected was for him to leave me a note that said he was going to see James. Why couldn’t he let that relationship lie? From what I’d seen, Seth didn’t get any respect from his father and very little love. He’d found out that James Hunter was a crook and a man so unscrupulous that he would steal from a child, yet he still tried to foster a relationship with him. I was beginning to wonder if I had made a grave mistake by handing half of my company over to him when he could just as easily hand it back to the man who still seemed to live only to destroy me.

  After my shower, I went out into the kitchen and found Grant making breakfast. “Hey! Will Mr. Hunter be joining us?” he asked with a grin.

  I sat down at the table and accepted the glass of juice he’d poured for me. “No, he’s gone,” I said.

  “Oh, okay… I made your favorite, veggie omelets.”

  “Thanks.”

  He finished what he was doing at the stove and turned around, sitting a plate with an omelet the size of New Hampshire on it in front of me. “You want toast?” he asked.

  I laughed, “No, I think this will be plenty, thanks.” Grant fixed his own plate and sat down across from me. I was poking my omelet with my fork.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure,” I told him. “Lately… I’ve just had some… questions, I guess about Seth and my relationship.”

  He finished chewing his bite and took a drink. When he sat his cup down he said, “What kind of questions? Do you think he’s cheating on you?” His dark eyes flashed when he said that. I knew that Grant was protective of me and I didn’t want him to be angry with Seth.

  “No… nothing like that. My concerns are mostly professional ones. You know, sometimes I wonder if my concerns stem from the fact that I set out to deceive him in the first place. It’s like a man or woman who are having an affair accusing their spouse of having one too. I worry that maybe he’s using me now. What if he wants the company back for his father? What if I set myself up for failure by handing half of it over to him?”

  “Let me ask you this,” he said. “What has he done or said that makes you think that might be on his mind?”

  “Nothing really. I guess I find it strange, and maybe even a little insulting that he’s still trying to have a relationship with his father after all he’s done to me… the woman he professes to love.”

  Grant was nodding “Okay, maybe that’s strange. Or maybe, he’s like the rest of us and he’s found out that parent/child relationships can be complicated things, and almost impossible to walk away from.”

  Grant’s mother was an alcoholic who was rarely home when he was a kid. He had three different step-fathers and his real father visited him once a year. He still answers the phone any time either of them called and no matter how crazy they made him, he was still always there if one of them needed him.

  “Maybe. Maybe I don’t understand it because I’ve never been an adult with parents. I guess it is a lot different than the relationship you have with them when you’re a kid.”

  “A lot,” he said, putting the rest of his omelet on top of his toast and taking a bite. After he swallowed he said, “Do you think he really loves you?”

  I thought about that for a second even though I didn’t really need to. I did believe that he loved me. What I was worried about was whether or not he loved me enough to ultimately choose me over his father. “Yes, I think he does,” I said at last. “He asked me to move in with him.”

  Grant stopped chewing and stared at me. He seemed to recover after a few seconds and after he finished that bite he said, “So he did, huh? What did you say?”

  “I said not yet,” I told him. “I said that I was comfortable here with you and I was afraid to give that up just yet.”

  “God, I hate this,” he said, putting down his fork and pushing his plate away.

  “You hate what?”

  “I hate being your best friend sometimes.”

  I raised an eyebrow and said, “Really? Why?”

  “Because best friends are supposed to only want the other one to be happy. I’m supposed to tell you, if he makes you happy then go for it. So here goes… If he makes you happy Adele, go for it.”

  “But?”

  “But if he doesn’t, then stay here because I’m going to miss you like crazy.” I smiled at him. I would miss him like crazy too. Before I had a chance to say anything else he said, “Honestly, I want nothing more than for you to be happy. If you love him then my advice to you would be not to let this silly business keep coming between you. There will always be another job, another company… but how many times in our lives do we find true love?”

  He was right but I still knew that I had to trust Seth unconditionally before I could take that next step. “Once… I hope.” I told him with a smile. “But I’m going to make darn sure that this is the real thing before I make any radical changes. Time will tell… I hope.”

  He reached one of his long arms across the table and took my hand to his lips. He kissed it and said, “Take your time… but follow your heart.”

  I spent the rest of the weekend making excuses to Seth as to why I couldn’t see him. I stayed in my pajamas all day Sunday but I spent most of the day on my laptop working on the specifics of the buyout that I was really hoping would go through this week. On Monday morning as I got ready for work I felt a tiny tickle in my belly when I thought about seeing Seth. On my way in, I tried to decide if it was anticipation about seeing him, or dread.

  SETH

  Monday morning I woke up with a raging headache and an upset stomach. It was the first morning in months that I hadn’t either woken up with Adele in my arms, or with the shiver of anticipation of seeing her on my mind. Today, I just wasn’t sure. She had avoided me all weekend. Was she angry that I’d gone to see my father? If sh
e was, how should I feel about that? I understood and respected why she didn’t like him, but did she really expect me to just cut off the man who was responsible for my very existence?

  Maybe she wasn’t mad. Maybe it had nothing at all to do with my father and it had everything to do with her wanting to spend more time with Grant. I spent the entire weekend trying not to picture them alone in that apartment. I tried not to visualize him walking around shirtless, or lying on the couch next to her while they lounged together and watched a movie or took a nap. I tried even harder to convince myself that nothing was going on between them. The thought of him touching her and her wanting him to was almost too much for me to bear.

  By the time I got to work I was in a foul mood. As I passed my assistant’s desk and she said, “Good morning, Mr. Hunter,” I lost it.

  “Is it? Are those projections ready that I asked for on Friday and you never got me on my desk this morning? Did you do the job this company pays you way too much to do today at least?”

  She looked like she was going to cry and I felt instantly like crap. “Yes sir,” she said. “They’re on your desk.” I felt worse than crap and I was about to apologize when I realized that Adele was standing in the doorway, listening to us. The sight of her looking so fresh and beautiful was like throwing kerosene on the fire that was my anger at the moment.

  “Did you need something, Adele?” My tone was as ugly as my mood and I knew as soon as it came out that I would regret it.

  “Yes, actually. I need to talk to you if you’re finished berating the staff.” I looked at my assistant. She was pretending to be focused on her computer. I decided I would apologize to her later. I stormed into my office and let Adele follow me. I was looking out the window when I heard her slam the door behind her. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say James Hunter just walked into this office.”

  That was the straw that broke it. I turned on her and I know I was spitting fire as I said, “Are you serious? You ignore me all weekend to be with your… roommate, and believe me, I use that term loosely, then you want to come in here and throw stones. My mood is a direct result of the head games you are playing with me!”

  She looked stunned. “I’m sorry, are you accusing me and Grant of something?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Should I be?”

  “How dare you!”

  “How dare I? I will tell you how I dare, Adele. I spent months working side by side with you, trying to take this company back from my own father. Once we did that and we stripped him of everything that was important to him, you also expected me to walk away from him. When I refused to do that, all of a sudden you have no time for me, but plenty to lay around eating Chinese food with your half-naked male roommate. That’s how I dare, Adele.”

  Now she looked like she was going to cry. I was batting a thousand today. I was on the verge of apologizing to her too when she turned on her heel and left my office, slamming the door on her way out the same way she had on her way in. I stood there looking at the door for an undetermined amount of time before finally sitting down at my desk. The first thing I saw there were the projections that I’d asked for. On top of the file was a sticky note.

  “I’m so sorry Mr. Hunter. My mother took ill Friday afternoon and I had to leave to go to the hospital. I tried to find you but was unable to. I hope you got my message that I would come in early today and get these done. Thanks for being such a great boss.”

  I don’t know if I ever hated myself more than I did at that moment. I picked up the phone and ordered a dozen roses for Adele and another dozen for my assistant. Then I took a deep breath and went out into the outer office. When she heard my door open, my assistant looked up at me. The look in her eye was the same one that my father’s staff wore when he was angry… pure fear. It made me sick to my stomach.

  “I’m so sorry,” I told her. “I had a bad weekend and you were the first person I saw when I came in. I unleashed it all on you and I feel like the world’s biggest ass now… I felt that way two seconds after I did it. I hope you can forgive me and more importantly, I hope that your mother is well.”

  She smiled at me through the tears that were back in her eyes. “She’s going to be okay. She’s still in the hospital, but they said she would be released today. I’m truly sorry I didn’t get my work finished on Friday.”

  “Please don’t apologize to me. You’ve been nothing but amazing and professional. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off and go make sure your mother is okay?”

  “Oh no, I have a lot to do…”

  “No, you don’t have anything here that can’t wait until tomorrow. Go be with your mother. I ordered flowers for you because I wasn’t sure how to apologize for being an ass but they’ll be here tomorrow when you come in.”

  She smiled again and said, “Thank you. Can I tell you something?”