* * *

Keith’s nerves were rattled as he sat in his attorney’s office. Last week, the SEC had informed him it was investigating his sizable stock purchase of HyunCom, weeks before its acquisition by Machtel Industries was announced and the stock rose 30 percent. At first, Keith was inclined to cooperate with the investigation, despite his attorney’s advice that it might not be in his best interest. Keith didn’t think he’d done anything wrong, either at the time of the purchase or now. Although compliance was a little looser at Duncan Weiss, he’d had extensive training on securities fraud and insider trading laws at the beginning of his career. He knew the rules. You couldn’t trade on your own deals, or other deals at the office. But the Machtel-HyunCom deal wasn’t his. That’s what chafed him. Jeff Erstine hadn’t told him anything. Keith had bought the stock on a hunch; he was a good investor with strong intuition and market knowledge. It’s not like he made a rational calculation at the time; his emotions had gotten the better of him. But he still thought it was harmless, and small dollars too.

However, when Carl, his attorney, explained the fact pattern as the SEC saw it, it painted a different story. Keith had exclusive access to Machtel’s office, an opportunity to spy on the company’s non-public activities. He had probed a former employee (as he’d expected, Rachel hadn’t lasted very long as the CEO’s second assistant and was now cooperating with the SEC) for more non-public information about the acquisition and traded on it a week later. Keith agreed to let Carl try to find out how strong the SEC’s case was, and if there was a settlement to be made.

“It doesn’t look good, Keith.” Carl sat behind his imposing wooden desk. “Even if it wasn’t what you intended.”

Keith shook his head. “But I’m a small fish. We’re talking less than a million. Surely, the SEC won’t go to the mat for a case like this.” It was a petty revenge bet, for god’s sake. “They must be willing to settle.” He tried to keep the desperation out of his voice.

“That’s my hope, Keith. But there’s no predicting when the SEC wants to make an example out of someone. And the U.S. attorney is completely independent, so even if we settle the civil charges, there’s still the possibility of a criminal indictment—which could mean a trial, conviction, prison time.”

Keith felt his vision blur, the leather-bound books lining the wall behind Carl swimming before his eyes, colors mixing. These were possibilities Keith couldn’t bear to consider, upending the man he believed himself to be. He had started investment banking in the era of Boesky and Milken, two men repeatedly held up as cautionary tales in his early years. That kind of thing would never happen at Morgan Stanley, he’d told Jaya, where the rules were hammered into them and abundant precautions put in place. He thought Jaya had been overcautious when she’d warned him against moving to Duncan Weiss years ago, and he’d since felt vindicated in his choice, in part because of how much he’d earned. But reward rarely came without risk, as he knew. Jaya’s absolute moral compass had always kept him away from the gray zone. Perhaps he’d gone adrift without her—another thing he’d lost, along with his wife and family, without even realizing it. Now, she seemed to operate in a different sphere, where the things that occupied him—the things that used to occupy them both—no longer figured into her life.