They had never married.Simon and Eshni"s kids, Zaila and Jimmy, had both been born out of wedlock.
That fact in itself put Jimmy"s inheritance in danger, especially the 18% of the shares that were held by Simon"s father – Jimmy"s grandfather. The law of Country I was clear as far as illegitimate children"s right on property was concerned. They were ent.i.tled to the property of their parents, but could not be considered the descendants of their grandparents.
Which questioned Jimmy"s ent.i.tlement to the 18% of the shares that Grandpa Hunter held. Jim had no legal right to the shares of the Hunter Corporation that were owned by the ex-Chairman, Simon"s own father.
Simon himself held 23% of the shares of the company, while Jim held 12%.
With Simon Hunter transferring his share to Jim, the boy would easily have the most bargaining power in the company. And since all the members of the Board liked him well, he would ascend to the position of the Chairman too.
But the direct descendants of the Hunter family had a tradition. Each Hunter child had to hold back part of their shares for their grandchildren – they could not transfer it all to their kids alone. Which was why Simon"s father still held a major 18%, while Simon, who was an only child, had inherited only 11% from his father.
The 18%, officially belonged to Jimmy.
Only, Jim"s ent.i.tlement was in question, if the news of him not being legitimate ever got out.
And Simon himself had to hold back 8% of his own shares for Jim"s children, as per the tradition. In total, it would make Jim the holder of most shares – a huge 27% – but his power still won"t be absolute.
Simon Hunter didn"t like that.
If Jimmy was going to ascend, he had to have absolute control.
Jim was his son. And the authority of no child of Simon Hunter"s could ever be questioned. That was the power his name held.
In fact, the imposing of the condition for Jimmy to get married had been the outcome of this situation. If Jim married and had a child of his own, Simon"s father would never refuse the transfer of the 18%. Not that the news of Jim"s legitimacy would ever get out, but Simon never left lose ends.
With Miya, though, the situation had complicated.
Eshni was back in the picture. Thanks to his controversial relationship with her in the past, Simon wasn"t exactly on good terms with his father. The ex-Chairman had never approved of him and Eshni, but he didn"t suspect them of not being married either. That was the reason Simon had kept Eshni"s exposure to his own social circle to a minimum too. The news just couldn"t get out, and one way to prevent it was to not let Eshni become a public figure.
Simon"s father had retired long ago, and lived far away. The only chance of him and Simon reconciling had occurred with Zaila"s birth – and gone with her. The old man had always wanted a granddaughter, which was currently the second threat to the Hunter Corporation, right now.
Zaila had died.
But Amara was still there.
She was not a direct descendant, she was the daughter of Simon"s second cousin. But Simon"s father, as an elder was quite fond of her, and she was the only surviving female child in the Hunter family. He was ent.i.tled to transfer all of his shares to Jimmy as per the tradition, but the scenario wouldn"t remain if Jim"s legitimacy was in doubt.
Simon wasn"t a fool.
He had long prepared fake doc.u.ments and had hired a curator to forge Eshni"s sign on the marriage paper. It still weighed on his pride, that he had let a woman f*** with his life. But his decisions couldn"t affect the company his forefathers had built, and what he had created with blood and sweat.
He had followed his heart for once in his life, and in the process lost his own d.a.m.ned mind. But the kids couldn"t suffer because of it. The forged doc.u.ments would be enough of a backup, yet the possibility of a long drawn battle in court wasn"t completely out of the picture. Especially since Amara had been snooping around for the past two years, and was somewhat close to their truth.
Thanks to her being a favourite of Simon"s dad, she was still safe. Else Simon would have done away with her long ago.
The old Hunter sighed.
He needed Miya"s a.s.sistance.
Owing to Miya"s special situation, she could be of sufficient use. After all, the girl had taken a bullet for his wife, and at the tender age of twelve too.
That exactly, had made the old Hunter kneel in front of the girl and apologize for being a jerk back when they were in Country M. He had only found out then that he owed Miya Eshni"s life.
And no matter what his feelings were for Eshni, he still didn"t hate her enough to want her dead.
He still craved to see her one last time, maybe point a gun to her head and ask her why she broke her promise to Zaila and never came back.
The woman had cost him his baby girl.
He couldn"t kill her without exactly knowing why she had done it.
Of course, Jimmy was to be blamed too. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d had dared to sleep! Well, it was Simon"s fault too for trusting the moron with the responsibility of Zaila. But sixteen! The boy had been as big as sixteen, and unable to save a mere child!
That was as useless as a Hunter could ever get.
For that, he was never going to forgive Jimmy. And he was never going to forgive himself.
But, Eshni.
She was the one with the greatest of the blame. She had to die.
Simon had been tracking her for fifteen years now. And the next time they were face to face, he was going to shoot her between the eyes.
Himself, the old man swore.
But not before she told him the truth.
The truth about his daughter. With her own b.l.o.o.d.y mouth.