The man in front of me was the man I remembered. His less than neat office and too relaxed manner of dress had made me wonder about his abilities the first time I’d met him, but I’d known as soon as he’d started talking to me that he was much sharper than he appeared. And loyal. And not just to Seth’s father who he’d gone to school with as kids, but to Seth as well if the current hard look he was giving me was anything to go by.
I knew it was going to be a challenge getting anything out of him at that point but I was desperate for answers that I doubted I’d be able to pull out of Seth anytime soon. “I fucked up, Mr. Brighton,” I finally admitted. “I got caught up in my own grief and I wasn’t there for him the way I should have been. I get that now.”
Harry seemed to soften somewhat and the fact that he reached for the fries again was a good sign. “How can I help, Mr. Grisham?”
“It’s Ronan,” I said.
He nodded. “Ronan.”
“Are you still his lawyer?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I retired about six months ago. Tabby handles some of the day to day stuff but I suspect her…personality might not be a good match for Seth.”
“What do you mean?”
“I love my girl but she’s got a lot of ambition and sometimes that can get her into trouble. Seth – he’s a smart boy but my Tabby likes it when she’s smarter.”
“Is Seth looking to take his business elsewhere?”
Harry paused and then said, “I think he’s holding off on making a decision out of respect for me, but a colleague who visits me once a month mentioned rumors that his father’s business partner, Stan Sadorsky, is urging Seth to use the company’s counsel for his personal affairs.”
I could only imagine that with Seth’s personal fortune, the financial loss would hit Harry’s daughter pretty hard. But I didn’t press Harry any further because I could see his loyalties were torn between Seth and his daughter.
“You mentioned it being tough for him to leave the house,” I prodded.
“I didn’t notice it myself at first when I went up to Whidbey Island to meet with him regarding his parents’ estate. I thought he was just still grieving and he also had his grandmother to look after. He’d missed so much school that it made sense for him to have a tutor to help him catch up, but he ended up hiring the tutor to home school him so he wouldn’t have to go back to school at all. About a year after the incident, my wife and I started inviting him down to the city to join us for dinner but he’d always say he was busy. After his grandmother passed, he asked me about his options when it came to a legal guardian.”
“And you helped him become emancipated.”
Harry nodded. “He was responsible, self-sufficient and he didn’t have anyone…” Harry’s eyes settled on me. “I asked him about you looking out for him but he said that wasn’t an option.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that so I remained silent.
“I thought with his grandmother gone, he’d start getting out more. He got his GED just before he turned seventeen. The judge who’d granted Seth’s request for emancipation assigned me as trustee of his inheritance until he turned eighteen, so I paid a lot of the bills. I was excited for him when he enrolled in college at theUniversity of Washington in Seattle but he dropped out after a few weeks and enrolled in an online program. I’m not sure if he completed the program – he didn’t talk much about himself when I’d go visit him.”
“And his dad’s company?”
“His father’s business partner offered to buy Seth out of the controlling ownership of the business a couple of times but Seth always said no.”
My mind was churning with all the new information but all it had done was make me feel even more guilty for how blind I’d been. I’d spent so much time lecturing Trace on how traumatized Seth must have been as a result of the attack that killed his parents and left him for dead, but when I’d had the chance to step up and make sure he was getting the help he needed, I’d said nothing. I hadn’t even noticed. I’d just made assumptions that other people like his grandmother had helped him work through it. But from what Harry was telling me, Seth had suffered in silence for a long time.
“Thank you, Mr. Brighton,” I said as I started to stand. “I’m going to do better by him. I’ll try to bring him by for a visit real soon. Otherwise, I’d be happy to drive you up to see him.”
Harry smiled and reached out his hand. “You’re a good boy,” he said with a smile. “I had my doubts about you, but Seth was right.”
“What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.
“I wasn’t so sure giving you half his inheritance was such a good idea, but he said you were family and he knew you’d do good with it.”
I felt my stomach drop out. “Hisinheritance? You mean Trace’s, right?”
“It was Trace’s but it reverted to Seth when he died.”
I could barely manage to get the words out of my mouth. “Trace didn’t leave me the money?”
Harry finally seemed to catch on to my distress and he stood. “I thought you knew,” he whispered. “I tried meeting with Trace about his half of the inheritance before he left the States after Seth got out of the hospital, but he kept putting me off. If he intended to leavethe money to you, he never mentioned it. But Seth…Seth was adamant that the money should go to you.”
I didn’t think I even managed to say goodbye to Harry because I heard him call my name a couple times as I walked down the hallway towards the exit. I ended up sitting in my car trying to absorb the turn of events and when I finally got myself together long enough to pull out my phone, I saw it was almost two o’clock. I checked the app and saw that Seth was on the move and I realized from the location of his car that he was probably on his way home since he was nearing the ferry dock in Mukilteo.
