Chapter 15 - The Secret Company
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David looked up, his eyes bloodshot. “Harbor Point was Dad’s idea. We started it together when I was twenty-five.”
I frowned, deeply confused. “You and Arthur? Why?”
“Because you were always gone, Mom!” David snapped, a flash of old resentment breaking through his depression. “You were in Japan, or Germany, or out at sea for nine months at a time. Dad never complained. He was so proud of you. But I was struggling. Dad thought that if we started a small property venture together, it would give me focus. It would be something that was just ours.”
The words felt like a physical blow to the chest. The guilt of my deployments had always haunted me, but I never knew Arthur felt he had to compensate for my absence with secret businesses.
“There was a small parcel of undeveloped land adjoining this estate,” David continued, his voice softening. “The old owner was going bankrupt. Dad and I bought it cheap under the LLC name Harbor Point. Dad’s plan was to eventually build the guesthouse there, which he did.”
“But you were a co-owner of the land.”
“Yes. On paper. But a few years later, I got into massive debt with a bookie. It got dangerous. Dad bailed me out with eighty grand, but his condition was that I had to sign my half of Harbor Point completely over to him. He erased my name from this property forever.”
“As he should have,” I said coldly.
“I know! I didn't care back then. But then I married Victoria. And her brother Evan got involved. We started Beacon Point Development to flip houses. We needed capital. I told Evan about my history with Harbor Point, trying to sound like a big shot. I told him Dad and I were partners.”
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I saw the trap closing. “Evan assumed you still owned half the land this estate sits on.”
David nodded miserably. “And he used that assumed equity to secure massive, illegal, off-the-books loans from some very bad people to fund Beacon Point.”
