Sweet Fortune

memory. “Should have seen my coworkers. Their idea of a good time was getting off work and heading straight for the nearest tavern. Their idea of intellectual conversation was a detailed discussion of the tits on the latest Playmate of the month.”
    “I know the type,” Hatch said dryly, thinking back to his own younger days.
    “Then, in sheer desperation, Mom convinced Uncle Vincent to let me try working in the head office.”
    “I take it that didn't work either.”
    “Hell, no. I couldn't do anything right. The old bastard was always yelling at me. Said I lacked the instincts for running a company like Benedict Fasteners. I started taking business-administration classes so I could develop the instincts, and he just laughed. He said no fancy college classes would ever give me what I needed. He said I just wasn't tough enough to follow in his shoes. And you know something? He was right.”
    “Benedict can be a little rough on people,” Hatch admitted. No wonder Jessie had wound up running interference between David and her father. With her soft heart, she must have felt sick about the failure of that relationship.
    “Yeah, well, as far as I was concerned, that last bit was the end. I walked away from Benedict Fasteners without a backward glance. Told Mom to forget trying to make me into a chip off the old Benedict block. Hell, I didn't even have any Benedict blood in me. I was a Ringstead. Why should I go out of my way to please the old man? Jessie was right.”
    “About what?”
    “She told me I wasn't meant for the business world. She said I should go off and do what I wanted to do, not what someone else wanted me to do. I'll never forget the night she sat me down and said that to me. It was like she'd set me free somehow, you know? Everything was a lot clearer after that.”
    “So you switched your major from business administration to philosophy?”
    “You got it.” David swallowed the last of his latte.
    “You're no longer interested in trying to please Benedict,” Hatch observed slowly. “But you're more than willing to take money from him to finance your education?”
    “Damned right. Bastard owes it to me.”
    “How do you figure that?”
    David looked at him in disgust. “Don't you know? My father helped him build Benedict Fasteners.”
    “What the hell are you talking about?”
    “My father used to work for Benedict back in the old days. He was an accountant. He pretty much set up the business, got it on its feet. He virtually created the little empire Uncle Vincent owns today.” There was a hint of pride in David's voice now. “If it hadn't been for my father, Mom said, Benedict would have gone under back at the beginning. The old bastard didn't know anything about business in those days. All he knew was construction.”
    “He knows a hell of a lot about business now,” Hatch observed.
    “So he learned. Mostly from my father, the way I see it. Took advantage of my dad. And when he didn't need Dad anymore, he fired him.”
    “Fired him? Are you sure?”
    David gave him a disgusted look. “Of course I'm sure. Mom told me all about it. Benedict used Dad up and got rid of him rather than make him an equal partner in the business, the way he should have. My father wasn't like Benedict. He was an intellectual type, you know? Not a shark. Getting fired was hard on him. He just split.”
    “You remember all this? You couldn't have been more than a small boy.”
    “Of course I don't remember all of it. I've figured most of it out from little things Mom and Benedict and Connie and Lilian have let slip over the years. The bottom line is, Uncle Vincent owes me, just like Mom says.”
    “Christ,” Hatch muttered. “Nothing like airing a few family secrets.” He sat in silence for a while, thinking.
    “You finished with this little man-to-man chat?” David asked. “If so, I've got another class in fifteen minutes.”
    “Just one more thing, David.”
    “Yeah?”
    “I happen to think you're a lot tougher than your father was. The fact that you put up with all the hassle from Benedict over the years and then chucked the whole scene to find your own path tells me that.”
    “So?”
    “So I think you've got what it takes to go to Benedict yourself and ask for the loan for grad school.” Hatch swallowed the last of his coffee and got to his feet. “You want to make the old bastard pay for what he did to your father? Go ahead. Make him pay through the nose. Take every last dime