Chapter 1
Seth sat across from Sam and Julie Montgomery, his palms sweaty, thanks his frayed nerves. He’d only met them once before, last year at a family reunion that his cousin Sam’s half-brothers had hosted here in Coldwater Canyon. But now he needed them more than he wanted to admit even to himself; they could easily be the key to him keeping everything he owned, not to mention his reputation.
It had been shortly after that family reunion that his world had turned upside down; if he’d known then what he knew now, he’d probably have been nicer to the couple. He hadn’t been rude or anything, but he’d been so overwhelmed with the entire family thing that he’d retreated into himself and said very little to anyone that weekend. At the time he hadn’t really cared what anyone thought of him, he had his life planned out, and it was going to be a quiet one.
But now, his life was anything but quiet, and not for the first time he wished that his brother Jared had inherited Montgomery Mining instead of him. At thirty-five, he’d assumed that his life was mapped out: a little cabin in the Alaskan outback, enough friends that he didn’t get lonely, and lots of peace and quiet. Once he’d had dreams of doing more with his life, but by the time he left home at eighteen, those dreams had been smashed by his father and he’d assumed irretrievable.
Last year, however, fate and his ancestors had stepped in and he had suddenly not only been appointed head of the company but inherited years of corrupt business practices going back as far as his great-grandfather. His trip to Coldwater Canyon to meet with Sam and Julie was the last in a painfully long year of one terrible discovery after another. He’d known that his father had chosen long ago to take the easy way out, using the family money to pave the simplest path to anything he wanted, never caring that there might be a price to pay down the road.
For all his talk about family, his father was a selfish man who only cared about him own gratification and making money, by any means he could use. He’d discovered who his father really was early on in life, being the oldest of three boys whose mother died when they were very young, had made him grow up fast. His father had always made it clear that he’d be the one to take over the family business, but the summer he turned thirteen, his father decided that it was time for him to start leaning how business was done.
He’d been shut up in his study for hours with a man Seth had known most of his life, Neil Parker. He’d met Mr. Parker on several occasions when he’d been invited to parties, but he’d never known exactly what his relationship to the business was, until the day his father invited him to join them in the study. At first Seth was honored to be allowed into his dad’s most sacred space, not even his stepmother was allowed in the room, but then things had gone sideways fast.
His father had gestured for him to join him behind the desk then said, “Seth, I’m sure you’ve met Mr. Parker before, he’s been a good friend to the family over the years.”
Seth smiled, not sure if he was supposed to say anything or not, but his father continued. “Neil and I have a bit of an arrangement, an arrangement that lets our company make the most profit possible,” he said, nodding to Neil Parker to take over.
“You see, Seth, I work for the EPA or the Environmental Protection Agency. As a regional department head, every study, permit, and complaint comes across my desk. This can be a major advantage for people who are my friends,” the man said, then winked at Seth.
“I think I understand,” he’d said, when it became clear that he was expected to say something.
His father and Mr. Parker laughed, then his father had pulled an envelope out of a drawer in his desk. He handed the envelope to Seth. “Son, I’m going to let you give that to Mr. Parker, this will ensure that he stays our friend for the next year.”
Seth had taken the envelope, his heart thumping in his chest. He’d known exactly what he was about to do, he was about to give Mr. Parker a bribe, he could see the bills sticking out of the top. The envelope slipped from his hand into Mr. Parker’s as easy as could be, then disappeared into the man’s pocket.
His dad had slapped him on the back, and said, “Well, son, that was your first lesson in business. How do you feel?”
Seth had mumbled an answer and fled the study as fast as he could, knowing that what he’d just witnessed was the reason that his father had been so successful, not through anything he’d done, but through cheating and bribing people. Most shocking of all was the fact that he felt a little bit sick about it and wasn’t sure why. But he’d seen some of the effects from the mining and clear cutting that had happened on their land and understood for the first time that his father was ruining the land in pursuit of money.
From that day forward, he’d made a promise to himself that he’d find out just how corrupt his father was. Breaking into his father’s study became a habit, and what he discovered ignited a fire in him to someday fix all the damage his father had done. But when he turned eighteen and approached his father about his ideas, including using their land to bring renewable energy to Alaska, his father had laughed and thrown him out of the study.
He’d all but walked away from his family that day; his mother was long gone, and his brothers were in Anchorage at boarding school, so there was really no one to miss him. With his trust fund, money was no problem so he moved into the nearest little town, eventually buying a piece of land from his father that as it turned out wasn’t even his to sell; of course Seth hadn’t known that at the time.
But his father’s sins had come back to haunt him in a big way, threatening the quiet life he’d built for himself and everything he held dear. But if Sam and Julie agreed to come and help him, it would be the last thing he needed to put the plan that would save his family home and repair the damage his father had done to the land. The only thing standing in his way was their reluctance to attach their names to a project that everyone said wouldn’t work.
Sam couldn’t help but stare at his cousin, what he was suggesting had never been done before. There had been rumors in the ecology community about a scandal at the EPA, but there were always rumors about corruption floating around. Now he was hearing that the rumors were true, a fact that hadn’t shocked him until he learned the extent of that corruption.
“I walked away from the company, years ago for this very reason,” Seth had explained when he outlined all the pollution and devastation that his father’s corruption had caused. “With Neil Parker in control, my father was able to ignore every law and restriction placed on the mining and logging industry in Alaska.”
“But Seth, if you walked away why are you the one who has to deal with this?” Julie asked, feeling like they were missing something.
Seth sighed, he’d been asking himself that very question for months, ever since his father’s funeral when he’d discovered the Montgomery Legacy. He’d been sitting in his father’s attorney’s office, wishing that he could just go home, when he’d gotten the news that he wasn’t going home anytime soon. That he in fact was the new head of Montgomery Mining.
As he’d sat between his brothers, he thought about how different they all were. Marshall, the youngest at only 23, was looking bored, and Seth knew he was thinking about his life in Anchorage. Marshall imagined himself to be a great actor, spending all his time working in community theatre just waiting for his big break and had no interest in the company. Jared, on the other hand, expected, as did everyone else, that he would soon be the head of the company.
“Your father left very specific instructions about what was to happen when he was gone, but I’m afraid that it’s not that simple,” the attorney had said, shuffling some papers on his desk, clearly uncomfortable with what he was about to say.
Seth looked at the man, a man he’d never met before and wondered what their father had done. “I didn’t know your father very well, in fact this is the only case I handled for him and honestly that wasn’t his choice. But the legacy has always been handled by this firm,” he said, then paused.
“Legacy?” Jared jumped in to ask. “What legacy?”
The attorney pulled out a very old file, its edges were frayed and the paper was stained. “This is the legacy your great great-grandfather created when he founded Montgomery Mining,” he said, sliding the file across the desk.
None of them picked it up, instead they only stared at him. “Mr. Thompkins, I’ve never heard anything about a Montgomery Legacy,” Jared said, looking at the attorney suspiciously.
“I can see that you’re skeptical and I can understand why, but I can assure you that it’s a legal and binding contract. Your father decided that he was going to ignore it,” he said, pointing to the file. “But it can’t be ignored.”
Seth was growing tired of all the secrecy. “What does this have to do with our father’s will?”
“As I said, your father chose to ignore the legacy, which trumps any other legal document, so the will he wrote is basically invalid. I tried to tell him that many times, but he wouldn’t listen.”
Seth knew all too well how stubborn his father was, especially when it came to something he wanted. “So, what exactly does all this mean to us?”
“It means, Mr. Montgomery, that you are now the legal head of Montgomery Mining,” Mr. Thompkins said, looking directly at Seth.
“Me?” Seth asked, his head spinning.
“Him?” Jared echoed his words, but with anger in his voice.
“Yes, the legacy states that the oldest son is always appointed as the head of the company. There’s no getting around it.”
“But I don’t want to be the head of the company. Can I step down?” Seth asked, horrified at the turn his life had just taken.
“Not if you want to keep your trust fund.”
Jared jumped up from his chair, clearly unable to control himself, “This is ridiculous, there’s no way some old contract can have that much power,” he said, then began to pace the room. “We’ll take it to court, I’m supposed to be the head of the company, Seth doesn’t deserve it. That’s not what my father wanted, I’m sure of that.”
Mr. Thompkins took a deep breath. “While that may be true, your father had no say in the matter.”
“We’ll take this to court,” Jared practically yelled.
“You could try that, but I assure you the legacy is air tight, there’s no way to break it. Your father already tried to break it in court, it cost him a bunch of money to be told exactly what I’m telling you. Now please sit down so we can finish our business,” Mr. Thompkins said, his displeasure with Jared’s behavior very clear on his face.
“We’ll just see about that, I’m going to contact my attorney and get this straightened out. You’re not going to take what is rightfully mine,” Jared said, then left the room, slamming the door behind him, reminding Seth so much of his father he could only stare at the door.
Marshall broke the silence in the room first. “If you don’t need me anymore, I’ll be on my way,” he said, then got to his feet.
“There are some papers to be signed before you can go,” Mr. Thompkins said.
While Marshall signed the papers Mr. Thompkins gave him, Seth sat stunned. For the last fifteen years, he’d been living his life trying to ignore what his father was doing, but suddenly all his sins had been heaped on him. He had no doubt that the company was corrupt down to the very last nut and bolt, and now it was his problem.
He flashed back that last confrontation with his father which had ended badly, his father yelling at him, and him yelling back for the first and last time in his life. It had been the last straw for Seth, but it still made him sad to think that the man who was supposed to love and care for him wouldn’t even listen to his ideas. He’d laughed and called him stupid, those words still echoed in Seth’s mind today.
His brother leaving the room brought him back to the present and the attorney sitting across from him who was sliding a pile of papers across the desk toward him. “Once we get these signed, we can talk,” Mr. Thompkins said, folding his hands in front of him on the desk, clearly prepared to wait for Seth to come out of his revere. “I know this has been a big shock to you, and I blame your father for that and a few other things.”
Seth wondered just how much Mr. Thompkins knew about his father’s business practices and for a moment considered just walking away. But in the end, his love for the land his family owned trumped his urge to wash his hands of the whole thing. He signed the papers silently, knowing that he’d just signed away his quiet life in the outback and would have to move back to the family home he hated so much.
When he slid the papers back to Mr. Thompkins, he put them into a brand-new file, then sat back in his chair. “Seth, I hope you don’t mind me calling you that, but I have a feeling you and I are going to get to know each other well.”
“Seth is fine,” he said slowly, wondering what the man was getting at.
“I know you and your father haven’t been close for a long time,” he began, clearly choosing his words carefully. “I point this out only because I need to know if you are aware of how your father did business.”
“Oh, I’m very aware of how my father did business and now I suppose it’s my job to fix what he did,” Seth said, understanding what the attorney was getting at.
“That’s one way to put it. I often advised your father to play by the rules, but he wasn’t a man who took advice from anyone. You’ve inherited a mess, Seth, but I want you to know that the firm is here to help you in any way we can,” Mr. Thompkins said, pushing a button on the intercom sitting on his desk. “Will you send Tina in please?” he asked, when his assistant picked up. “Seth, I’m getting a bit too old to take on a case like yours so I’m going to assign it to my granddaughter. Someday she’ll take over the firm and the legacy, so I thought it appropriate.”
Before Seth could reply, a young woman came into the room; she bore some resemblance to the old man but she had a fire in her eyes that wasn’t present in her grandfather’s, who, when Seth really looked at him, looked tired and old. It must have been quite a burden to carry around the knowledge he had for all these years, and he knew only too well what it was like to come up against his father.
“Hi, Mr. Montgomery,” she said, crossing the room to shake his hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Seth examined the petite woman in front of him, she couldn’t be much older than his younger brother, but she had a spark of intelligence along with that fire in her eyes that made him feel comfortable almost immediately. “It’s nice to meet you too, but I’m not sure how much help I’ll be needing.”
“Mr. Montgomery, let me be frank with you, the legacy is just the tip of the iceberg. Are you aware that the fines for your dad’s illegal activities alone could bankrupt the family? And there’s the little matter of the lease on the land,” she said, taking a seat next to him.
“Lease? What lease?” Seth asked, confused again.
Tina shook her head, as if she’d known that he’d be confused, then said, “The lease with the Yup’ik tribe for the land your family has been living on.”
“That’s not right, my family has owned that land for generations,” Seth said, feeling like his life was spinning out of control.
Tina opened a file and pulled out a creased and worn piece of paper, “Here is the original lease signed in 1917 by your great-grandfather,” she said, handing the paper to Seth. When he still looked confused, she continued. “Many of the native tribes in this area were given back to the lands stolen from them during the gold rush period, your great grandfather was able to negotiate this lease. It gives your family the right to use the land in any way they see fit for a hundred years.”
Seth scanned the lease quickly, the language making it difficult for him to make much sense of what was in it, but one thing he recognized clearly was the signature at the bottom of the page. It belonged to his great-grandfather, of that he was sure, there was a framed copy of the same signature in his father’s study. He’d always wondered why anyone would frame their signature, but he’d always heard that the man had gone a bit crazy in the end.
Seth sat stunned, unable to take in this new turn in the topsy turvy reality that had become his life. “So, what happens if the Yup’ik don’t sign a new lease?” He was pretty sure he knew the answer but wanted to hear it anyway.
“Then they take over the land and use it how they see fit. Your family home is gone, the mines are gone, your cabin is gone,” Tina said pointedly.
“That might be the best thing that could happen to me,” Seth mused out loud.
“I’m afraid not,” Tina said, interrupting his thoughts of just walking away from the whole mess and leaving it for someone else to clean up. “There’s the little issue of the contamination and pollution your family left behind. You don’t actually think the EPA is going to let you walk away, do you?”
“That’s why you said it could bankrupt us,” Seth said, the truth sinking in.
“If they make you pay cleanup costs and penalties for all the laws the mining company violated, even your billions of dollars won’t be enough,” Tina said, again not softening her words at all. “But I do have some good news. Since you’ve had nothing to do with Montgomery Mining since you became an adult they can’t charge you criminally for anything your father did.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?” Seth asked, sarcastically.
Tina just shrugged her shoulders and said, “I’m here to help you in any way I can, but if I were you I’d start figuring out how to get that lease signed and the back country cleaned up before the EPA comes down on you.”
He’d gotten up from his chair then, too shocked to say much more than, “Thank you for all the information. I need some time to process this.” Then he’d walked out of the room, a man who’d suddenly inherited a company that probably was corrupt to the core.
Sam cleared his throat, he and Julie been waiting for him to reply for so long that they’d begun to think he wasn’t going to answer. Seth sighed, he knew he’d been sitting silently for too long. “It’s such a long story and I’m not sure I even want to tell you, if you know just how terrible my dad was, you might not want to help me and I really need your help.”
“Seth, I think you’re going to have to tell us. We can’t get involved unless we know the entire story,” Sam said, pouring them all another glass of wine. “We’ve got all night.”
Seth took a big gulp of his wine then a deep breath and started at the beginning, from the time he was thirteen, until last year when he’d been appointed head of Montgomery Mining. When he was finished, Sam and Julie were silent for a long time. Each turning the story over in their minds, looking for inconsistencies, signs that Seth was more involved in the business than he was letting on.
Finally, Julie said, “I can see that you have a big mess on your hands, but what I don’t see is how we fit into the picture. We’re ecologists not environmentalists, I don’t see how we can help with the cleanup. That’s not what we do, we study moose.”
“That’s exactly why I need you. I’ve spent the last year working on a plan that would allow me to get the land cleaned up and pay for it,” Seth said, then added, “But if I don’t get the lease, I can’t do that.”
“And we can help make that happen?” Julie asked, still not seeing the connection.
“It seems that the Yup’ik have me in a difficult position, and they’re making the most of it and the truth is my father cheated them for so long, I’m willing to give in to their demands. As you can imagine, the animal population in the area has been steadily decreasing over the last fifty years and for a community that lives off the land, that’s devastating. I think you two can help with that, at least having you there will make them happy,” Seth explained.
By the time he left that night, Seth felt sure that Sam and Julie would agree to help him. It had been hard admitting to them what his family had done to the pristine wilderness of Alaska, but he was also sure that they understood that he had nothing to do with it. He hoped he’d done enough to entice them to come, but if not, he’d do as he’d been doing for months and come up with a new plan.