"You remember Alan Buckley," Forrest prodded. "Do you remember Buck? He only brought me a few times. I was probably too young for you to notice. I mostly hung around with Finn."
Finn's eyes narrowed on Forrest. "You're Buck? Did you change your name?"
"I was always Forrest, but my dad hated that name, so he called me Buck. After he was gone, my mother changed our names and I stopped going by Buck." He focused on Griffen. "Your father threw you out? After?"
Griffen ignored Forrest's question in favor of one of his own. "What do you mean, after he was gone?"
Realizing he wasn't going to get an answer from Griffen, Forrest explained. "He killed himself on Christmas Eve, two weeks after your father stole the company and the bust of Vitellius. Once he realized he wasn't going to get it back, that he'd lost everything, he just gave up."
Griffen looked down at his desk, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out in a shuddering sigh. Hope reached over, stroking her palm down his arm in a gesture of comfort. "You did everything you could to stop him."
"I could have told Alan what he was up to before it was too late."
"Wasn't that Ford's job? Didn't he promise he was going to work things out with Alan?" Hope prompted. I had no clue what she was talking about. Royal reminded me that I wasn't the only one still confused.
"Was that how Ford double-crossed you?" Royal asked. "None of us knew the details, just that something went wrong with a deal and Vanessa left you for Ford."
Griffen sighed again, turning to face Forrest. "You remember my brother, Ford?" Forrest inclined his head in assent. "We'd only been working for my father full time for a few months. The company he started with your father was our first big project. We handled the business side and your dad and his team built the code. It was going to revolutionize VoIP communications."
"It did," Forrest said bitterly. "After your father stole it from mine and sold it to the highest bidder."
"Ford and I found out what Prentice had planned. I was working on legal and financial ways to stop him from taking the company. Ford was supposed to be working with your father to safeguard the company from takeover. It never occurred to me that he was lying the whole time. Back then he was—" Griffen faltered. "We were close."
"Why would Ford have done that?" Parker asked, wilting a little, her hand reaching for Sterling's. "He was always a little distant, but to help our father steal from a business partner? I never understood his marrying Vanessa. I thought he was just young and she'd seduced him into betraying you, but this? How could he be so cruel?" Looking at Forrest, she asked, "Did Prentice know about your father? About what happened? Did Ford know?"
"You'd have to ask Ford. After my father died, my mom packed us up and we moved to Oregon to be closer to her family. I don't remember hearing anything about the Sawyers after that."
"He regretted it." Sterling's voice cut into the room for the first time, low and a little husky from the tears she'd shed. "Ford was never the same after Griffen left. He pretended to be. I was just a kid, but I remember he was almost manic at his wedding. His smile was so fake it was kind of scary. He was like that for a while, and then he was just sad all the time."
She still couldn't bring herself to look directly at Forrest, but she said, "I know he had so many regrets. Not Prentice. Prentice didn't have a conscience. But Ford isn't like him. If he was here, he'd tell you he was sorry."
Forrest jerked up a shoulder in a shrug. "He's not here, and his apology wouldn't bring back my father." Pain flashed across his face as he turned to Griffen. "You were trying to stop the sale?"
Griffen nodded. "I thought I had it, but Ford was undoing my work behind the scenes. He and Prentice did it all in secrecy. Sold the company out from under your father, disinherited me, and once my fiancée found out, she married Ford instead. Your dad wasn't the only one who lost everything. But I didn't have a family to support."
"What did you do?" Forrest asked, his eyebrow raised. "I've heard the gossip around town, that you've been gone for years and only came back when Prentice died, but I didn't know when you left or why."
Griffen smiled wryly and shook his head. "I hitchhiked to West's house and he took me to the army recruiter's office. I stayed with him until boot camp, and I never came back. Not until Prentice died, and then only because he set up the will so if I didn't come back I'd bankrupt the entire town."