This is it.
This is when I tell this beautiful woman everything.
“We let each other down.” I stop and think about the next words I’ll say. “My father is in prison because of me.”
Chapter 50
Linny
Prison.
That’s beyond the scope of what I imagined whenever I pictured Jeremy’s family.
There was nothing online about his parents.
The only familial connection I’ve been able to make is that he inherited Rizon from his mom’s father.
I got that from the Rizon website. It was written in a short paragraph about how the company was founded and its history since then.
I ask the obvious question because I don’t know what else there is to say. “What did he do?”
“He fucked up the lives of his children,” he says, his head bowed. “He ran an investment firm. He stole from every one of his clients. From me too.”
I’m speechless.
Hours ago I thought my dad had hurt me in an inconceivable way, but his failings were based on his selfish need to give his son the world.
From what Jeremy’s saying, his father’s actions were purely selfish.
“I interned for the firm that he ran with his third wife.” His head falls back onto the couch. “I saw things that didn’t add up. None of it made sense. I didn’t know what to do.”
“How old were you?”
He tilts his head to look at me. “Nineteen, twenty. Old enough to know that something wasn’t right.”
I reach for his hand, cradling it between my own. I need him to feel reassured, to feel my presence in every way.
“I was in college, and it happened over two summers.” He circles my hand with his thumb. “The first year I thought it was an accounting error. I mentioned it to my dad, but he said it was nothing. He called it an oversight and told me to forget about it.”
“Did you?” I ask warily.
“No.” His jaw tightens. “It bothered me. It ate at me. I went back the next summer and the first thing
I did was pull up that account on my computer. The numbers still didn’t add up.”
He shifts slightly, his legs parting. I can feel the tension knotting his body.
“I pulled up another account; my account.” His eyes close. “I had inherited a trust when I was eighteen from my mother’s family and Rizon when I was twenty-one. I was the only child; the only grandchild.”
“Your father invested the money in the trust for you?”
“I didn’t think twice asking him to handle that for me.” He huffs out a pained laugh. “If you can’t trust your father, who the fuck can you trust?”
I’m not the person to answer that.
“Was it all gone?” I squeeze his hand in mine.
His gaze skims my face. “I couldn’t access it, so I asked him about it. He gave me some bullshit excuse about keeping it under lock and key because of the other employees. He promised he’d get me a printout of it, but that never came.”