He grinned and said, “You told me exactly where to find them. It seems my father was running his own business based on information he gained confidentially from yours. When your father found out, he filed a lawsuit against him. He wanted my father disbarred so that he wouldn’t be able to do the same to someone else. The civil suit had been filed and if your father would have won the case, an investigation by the FTC may have been opened against my father as well as the Law Review Board getting involved.”
“But since my father died, none of that happened, right?”
“It gets better,” Phillip said. “James filed a countersuit claiming slander. When the first case went to court, your father had already passed. Miraculously, witness statements and supporting documents had gone missing from his attorney’s office.”
“Was that attorney a friend of James Hunter’s by any chance?”
“Better yet,” Seth said. “He was a gambler and a cheat and Father knew all of his deep, dark secrets because they had worked together for years.”
“Oh no!”
“Oh yes,” Phillip said. “I spoke with the other attorney today. His name is Paul Goddard and he has been retired for five years. He told me the truth about what happened back then. He has gone through alcoholics anonymous and gamblers anonymous over the past few years. He was going to come to you eventually. He has been trying to “make amends” for his past sins. I told him that I wouldn’t promise whatever he told me wouldn’t be used against him. I’m not sure how far you plan to take this. He said that he didn’t care anymore; he was tired of living with things on his conscience. It seems he’s admitted a lot of his wrongs against a lot of people.”
“He got rid of the evidence?” I asked.
“Worse,” Seth said. “My father blackmailed him and threatened to ruin his career. Paul gave him the original witness statements and original documents… financial documents that your father had collected to use against mine in court.”
“Wow… I didn’t realize how far his reach was.”
“Neither did I,” Seth said. “The good news is that Phillip told me something very interesting about my father today. He told me that James Hunter is a narcissist. I guess I’ve had to always know that, but I never wanted to admit it. It’s hard to think of one of your parents as incapable of loving anyone other than themselves. “He also told me that a narcissist would “keep trophies” of his wins because he thinks he is way too smart to get caught.” Seth laid down some more paperwork in front of me. It was copies of the witness statements, all of the evidence my father had compiled against James.
“Oh my God. Seth, you’re amazing.” Phillip cleared his throat and I looked up at him and smiled. “You too, Phillip of course. You’re both incredible. I’m so lucky to have you in my corner.”
“At the risk of sounding like an infomercial I have to say, “But wait!” That’s not all.”
I couldn’t help but smile at my beautiful man as I said, “Please tell me what else there is.”
“Well, as you can see there, my father countersued for slander. Because this evidence never came to light, and your father was dead he won that case. That’s how he obtained your company. He was awarded a lot of money from your father’s estate. There wasn’t enough cash so he took the other assets… the house, the furnishings, the business…”
“So he was granted all of that in court. Does that mean I don’t have a legal right to any of it any longer?”
“It would, if we couldn’t prove he hid evidence and that was the only way he won.”
“So we’re going to do what with that evidence?”
“We are going to use it to persuade my old man to walk away from Hunter Corp… after signing the deed over to you, of course.”
“Oh wow. Do you think that he will agree to that?”
“We will make sure he doesn’t have a choice,” Seth told me.
I got up and hugged them both. I don’t think I could ever put into words how much their help meant to me. “Thank you both so much!” I saw the top of Phillip’s head flush as I kissed him on it. Seth looked amused.
“You’re welcome,” Phillip said. “I can’t wait to hear what his reaction was when you two confront him. I’m going to go home now and get some rest. It’s late for this old man to be out.” I thanked him profusely again. I was so happy.