Utterly Forgettable | MM Romance | Complete

Four: What Will It Be? (2/2)

Emery's answering smile was subdued. "Like I said, he was a lawyer. He had the house in Annie's — his wife's — name. The house is still hers, thankfully. She had nothing to do with his actions and didn't deserve to be caught in the fallout."

"You lost everything and they banned you for it." The unfairness of it all left Josh incensed, the spoon clattering on the half-eaten bowl of cereal and splashing milk on the counter.

Emery looked perfectly calm about his fate. "I shouldn't have given him power of attorney to begin with."

Always the weight of everyone's responsibility on his shoulders. "But didn't... Wasn't..."

"What?"

"I don't really know how to say this without sounding offensive."

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you that my own approach has always been to simply say things without fear of offending."

Josh felt like he'd been punched, jaw clenching. It helped him do away with his outrage on Emery's behalf much faster than he'd otherwise have managed. "No, you don't. Okay then: weren't there people who owed you favors? Strings you could pull so you wouldn't be banned from doing what you do best? The general idea I have is that rules bending for wealthy people is the norm."

Emery stared at him as if Josh were a particularly dense child. "I'm sorry to shatter your linear worldview, but you're mistaking money for power. While I found I was particularly good at accumulating the first, I have never had any interest, inclination, or even the ability to gather the latter."

He coughed again, shoulders shaking and face paling. It took him a moment to be able to continue. "My clients were regular people, with regular incomes; I made enemies along the way by refusing to work with bigger fish. There would have been no one to bend the rules for me who wouldn't have rather bent them against me, if it came to it."

"Can I ask why you wouldn't work with them?"

"Because I was the company. Every decision was ultimately run by me, and there are only so many hours in the day. I started trading because I knew I'd be good at it, and because I knew we'd need more money for Emma's care than we had; I used to like to think I was helping other Emmas with the way I ran the company."

Emery lifted his hand up to his face, before remembering he had no beard to pull on and letting it drop. "And then Emma was gone and I went from being a control freak to dropping everything and relying on Roger to maintain course. I lost people their lives' savings the minute my motivation for growing my own capital ceased to exist."

The only reward for Emery's renewed attempt at breath was another round of helpless coughing. Josh got up and busied himself with wiping the counter clean, returning the milk to the fridge, and putting the cereal back in the cupboard, to have something to do that wasn't staring at Emery while he was like that.

"I'm sorry," Emery continued once Josh rose from his crouched position. "I can't help you — I can recommend a few people to work with if you're looking to invest. Best not to use just one — you never know where the next Roger is working. Please write the names down; I can't do it without my glasses."

Josh smacked his hand down on the counter, frustrated that he wasn't getting anywhere. "Damn it, Emery, look at me! Do you really think I care about investing? About making more money than I'd know how to spend?"

"I don't understand. You said—"

"I said whatever I thought would convince you not to leave when you've nowhere to go!"

In the space of a heartbeat, Emery looked raw and vulnerable, that weary resignation fleeing his eyes to give way to something fragile Josh couldn't quite name. "So that isn't why you went searching for me last night?"