Chapter 67 #2
“I have never seen a man so compelled by money that he puts it ahead of his family on a permanent basis. We all have days when we have to sacrifice family dinners and nights with the lady for time in the office, but even in my worst days, I tried to minimize those. Edwin… he’s the only person I ever seen act that way.
I suppose that’s why he’s so rich, but let me tell you, until you can inject money into your bloodstream to prevent heart attacks, it just ain’t worth it past a certain point. ”
I nodded, trying to see if that would prod Mr. Burnson to continue speaking as he had.
“Bless that old man’s soul,” he said, which wasn’t exactly the words he was looking for. “Truth be told, Chance, I think a lot about what happened while you were here with the Taylors and such. I think about why Edwin Hunt went to all that trouble to hurt me. And it boggles the mind.”
There was my opening. Mr. Burnson wasn’t just going to give me the gospel of his newborn life—I had the opportunity that I needed to say more.
“What, exactly, happened a few years ago?” I said. “I always heard rumors about how you had screwed over Edwin in some business deal or something, and that’s why he shamed you as he did at that one meeting.”
I did not expect Mr. Burnson to laugh as heartily and outrageously as he did. It didn’t seem like he was mocking me, but there did seem to be something to the question I wasn’t aware of.
“Honestly? I just took a deal that was better than his. No public shaming, no calling out in the press, nothing like that. Just a better deal. But you know, with your father—”
“He’s not my father.”
The stunned look on Mr. Burnson’s face surprised me, but perhaps he was just looking at it through rose-colored glasses still.
“I mean, yes, he adopted me, but he never wanted me in the family. That was all Melanie’s doing. Mom’s doing. Edwin basically accepted me because he figured he’d never have to do much with me. He’s probably regretting that now.”
“Jesus. Anyways, yeah, nothing more to it. A simple business deal.”
“And he went back at you hard for just that?”
“Seems a bit much, don’t you think?”
I was never going to have a better point in the conversation, never going to have a better moment, never going to have a better opportunity than right there to say what I felt.
“Here’s the truth, Mr. Burnson,” I said.
“I don’t like Edwin Hunt, but I haven’t liked him for a while now.
However, the more I think about him and how he’s treated me and others, the more I realize he’s like a cancer on this world.
He lies to everyone he works with, he betrays trust, and he does whatever he can to get a dollar.
He has no ethics and no code, at least not in his heart, and he only acts in his own self-interest. I am working on collecting as much information and as many sources as I can to get an article in the Journal to publicly pressure him to resign as CEO of Hunt Industries. Are you in?”
Mr. Burnson hummed his lips like a horse, looked out the window for what seemed the longest time—so long that I wondered if… I don’t know, he was trying to telepathically link up with the old man or something—and then, finally, looked back at me.
“You know, so much of what I’ve done in the past couple of months has been about trying to move on. Trying to move on from that lifestyle that quite literally nearly killed me. Going back into business with Mr. Hunt… that seems like I’m going back to the lifestyle.”
“No, I don’t mean interacting with him again,” I quickly corrected. “I don’t want you to do that. This has nothing to do with laying a trap. This is simply going back on the traps he has laid for you and exposing them to the world. It’s our chance to make society and the market better.”
Mr. Burnson leaned back and matched my body language, crossing his legs, placing his chin on his pointed fingers.
“And what’s your end game, Chance?”
Might as well be honest.
“There’s an element of revenge, I’ll admit.
This started out as kind of a middle finger back to him.
But the more I thought about it, the more I considered how many people he had hurt, I knew I couldn’t just stand to the side as I was.
I knew I wasn’t the only person he’d burned.
And so I decided that for the sake of helping everyone, I’d act.
And when it all goes down? If it all goes down?
I’ll go back to MCH and run that. If Morgan doesn’t want to go into it?
Then it’ll just be Chance Holdings. I’ll work with that.
It’ll be smaller than expected, but I’m getting pretty comfortable at being a one man show. ”
Mostly because much of my life has felt like a one-man show in some ways.
“Alright,” Mr. Burnson said. I tried not to show too much reaction, fearful that Mr. Burnson might not actually be agreeing to what I wanted.
“I see what you’re saying. And, sadly, I have to agree.
Mr. Hunt’s behavior… it’s sad, really. I always knew he had an edge, but he was so talented he never did need to act so crassly and greedy.
But, the allure of the dollar has ruined many a man before. What do you need?”
“Just any information you can give me about Edwin acting unethically—maybe any emails he’s ever sent you, anything like that. Any names of people you know—”
“Give me a second.”
With that, he turned to his computer and furiously typed away for about a minute. Then, with a dramatic stroke, he clicked his mouse and turned to me with a smile.
“Something I haven’t told you yet,” he said.
“Part of the reason that I didn’t take Edwin’s deal all those years ago was absolutely because it wasn’t the best deal.
But part of it was also because I had so many people come to me and say that if they had to do it all over again, they would never have done business with him.
I just sent you a list of names off the top of my head. Take a look.”
Curious, I opened my phone and my email app. Sure enough, Mr. Burnson’s email had come to me.
I looked at it in stunned, pleasant disbelief.
The list of names was at least twenty deep, if not more. I looked up at him in surprise.
“I can’t promise you all of these people are alive or willing to talk,” Mr. Burnson said.
“But I can promise you all of them got screwed in some way. I have changed my life for the better, Chance, but I fear that your… that Edwin Hunt will not do the same. If he’s going to continue to hurt people as he has, then I am in agreement with you.
For the sake of everyone, we need to pressure him to resign. ”
“However we can get him out.”
“Just promise me one thing.”
“Hmm?”
If he was going to ask me to come back to him for a year… I’d do it. A year back as an employee, only running MCH or Chance Holdings on the side, was a trade I would gladly take to force Edwin Hunt out of the game.
“Stay true to what you told me,” Mr. Burnson said.
“That this is truly a move to help society and that you’ll go back to what you were doing.
I can promise you this, Chance. I’ve seen just about every stage of life, from being so poor that you had to borrow money to pay rent to being so rich that you have millions of dollars after taxes and expenses every year.
But if this heart attack taught me anything, it’s that unless I have the right attitude, it won’t matter how much money I have. ”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that, sir,” I said. “I know exactly what I want.”
In business, at least.
In love… let’s come back to that later.
“Good man,” Mr. Burnson said. “You know, even when I fired you—or you quit—I was kind of impressed. People have definitely quit with flare before, but yours went above and beyond.”
“Thanks, I think,” I said with a snort.
“It shows the passion and fire you have,” he said. “I have nothing short of complete confidence you’ll succeed here.”
I smiled, extended my hand, and shook Mr. Burnson’s. But then he said hold on, came around the desk, and gave me a hug. Admittedly, this hippy-dippy version of John Burnson was a bit off-kilter, probably a bit more likely than he should be to make Fridays a Hawaiian dress down day now.
But, hey, he was an ally, and I would take allies however I could.
“Where are you headed now?” he said.
“Home.”
“You walking?”
“I—”
I thought of the people who had trailed me to here and from Layla’s place.
“Actually, would you mind giving me a ride or calling me one?”