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"It was business, not seduction"
"You went out to dinner with him several times, too"
"We are friends, Mrs Seaton But not lovers"
"Only because so," Edith shot back hoarsely "You dropped my Jeremy like a hot potato when Nick Harte started to date you Don't deny it"
"I do deny it Every single word You're putting your own spin on this, Edith, but I think deep down you know that it isn't the truth"
"You caused trouble between Jeremy and Nick the same way Claudia Banner did with Mitchell Madison and Sullivan Harte"
"So you took the painting the night of the storood name in a noble attempt to defend Jere that, Edith"
Edith sat in rigid, stubborn silence
"Do you knohat I think?" Octavia sat down in the chair across from the older woe for soo She is beyond your reach and maybe you told yourself you had put it all behind you But when you realized that I was her niece, the old anger ca back, didn't it?"
Edith flinched "She got aith it But then, Claudia Banner got aith everything She never paid for the trouble and pain she caused"
"Tell reat-aunt did to you, Edith"
"She seduced ed up out of her chair "And then she used him"
Octavia was on her feet now "How did she use hiot him to doctor the company books while she carried out her scam That was the reason Mitchell and Sullivan never saw the bankruptcy co until it was too late"
Octavia drew a deep breath and let it out slowly "I see"
"It was as if she was some sort of sorceress," Edith whispered "She put my Phil under a spell for a time The poor fool never realized how she'dand discovered that she had vanished He actually thought that she would contact him after the heat died down He really believed that she loved him and wanted him to run off with her It was months before he finally understood that he'd been used"
"Was that when you discovered his role in the bankruptcy?"
"Yes I'd suspected he was having an affair with her, but I never drea her drive Harte-Madison into bankruptcy I was stunned He was a Seaton, after all How could he do so like that?"
"But you kept the secret"
"I had no choice I had to think of the faine what they would have had to face here in Eclipse Bay if it had come out that their father had had a hand in the destruction of Harte-Madison"