Thu, Dec
Chapter 36
Nolan’s POV
I walked slowly towards my boardroom, deliberately shutting of all the negative thoughts that might want to sneak into my mind. I had already made my decision and I didn’t want anything to change my mind. I pushed the door open to the hum of voices, but the noise stopped when I crossed the threshold, their heads turning in unison to look at me.
I ignored their gaze and headed towards my table, my footsteps echoing through the room. No one was talking, but I could still feel the tension in the atmosphere, I sat down on my seat and my eyes went straight to Laura who was standing by the corner, with a file pressing against her chest.
The look on her face was different from the others, probably because she didn’t have any of her money in it like they did. “Laura,” I called, my voice low and firm. She sprinted towards me, her heels clicking against the marble floor.
“Have you gotten anything on the name yet?” I asked quietly, as he lowered her head to listen to me.
She shook her head. “No sir.” She said calmly. “Nothing that leads anywhere. We’ve been trying just like you ask, but this investor, whoever they are, they are really doing a good job at being anonymous.”
I nodded slowly, disappointed that that wasn’t anything in it yet, but just before I could say another thing to her, one of the board members cut in. He was young and thought too highly of himself and everything about him seemed to scream “Old
money
Why does it matter, Alpha Nolan?” He asked, his voice carrying a hint of mockery. “Someone’s offering over a billion dollars to invest in the company. Why are you so concerned about a name?”
I kept my eyes on him for a while, a small smile playing on my lips. I was thinking about how stupid he was and each thought that crossed my mind was equally amusing. I took a deep breath and turned to Laura who was still standing beside
- me.
“Laura,” I said calmly. “Why don’t you explain to this gentleman here why you should be concerned about a name?” She smiled, delighted by the opportunity, and then she straightened up. “Well, Mr Schwab,” she began.
“Any investor with such a massive offer could be a serious risk to any company and not just ours. The peculiarity of this investment, on the other hand, is that it’s our company and it’s completely anonymous with no relation whatsoever to any institution. We don’t know who they are, we don’t know their intentions, all we know is they could be competitors, trying to sabotage us from the inside or worse, someone trying to control our decisions once they have a stake in the company. So having a name is perhaps the most important thing.”
Schwab still had the smug smile on his face and my guess was that he didn’t understand one bit of what she said. He was going to say something to Laura which was obviously stupid, but I cut him off before he could say anything.
“Schwab,” I said, leaning forward. “You should really think about your questions before you ask them. Let’s be reasonable here. If you don’t, I might just think that you are completely stupid and that you’re only sitting in that chair because of ‘daddys inheritance.”
There was absolute silence in the room and I could see his face turn red with embarrassment. I turned my face back to the rest of the board members and smiled.
“I’m sure you’re all aware of the offer by now,” I began.
It’s a lot of money and I won’t deny that it is. It’s probably more than enough to stop the bleeding and I know that most of you think that It would be a good idea to go ahead and accept it.
I paused for a bit and glanced around the table, trying to read meaning into the expressions on their faces. Most of them
Chapter 30
had a frown on and others didn’t even have something that I could read into.
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“Ive gone through the proposal,” I continued. “And believe me, have thought about it. But I have decided that for the good of the company, we will not be accepting the offer.”
Another round of murmur rippled through the room, everyone had something to say and I didn’t have to hear it first to know that they weren’t loving the decision.
“How exactly is that the good of the company?” One of them asked, leaning forward with a visible frown on his face.
“You’re turning down two billion dollars when we are on the verge of collapse. None of this even makes sense.”
I wanted to smile, but I didn’t, so instead I got up from my chair and walked towards the window, a habit that I couldn’t get rid of.
“It’s pretty simple, Kingston. We don’t know who the investor is and we don’t know what they actually want. We could be headed straight into a trap, or worse, we could, with open eyes, offer the company to them. We can’t afford the risk, Kingston. One wrong move and it’s over.”
“That’s a load of bollocks He said, slamming his hand on the table I smiled wryly and turned to face the room.
for
“Yes, that might be just a small chance that this deal is in fact what you all think it is, I won’t deny that. We probably might be saved financially. But do we really want to take that risk? Personally, I don’t want to. I’ve worked so hard for this company years, right from scratch to what you all see now, it’s like my skin, I listen to what it says.”
“I can’t…we can’t afford to be reckless,” I said softly.
“One wrong move and there would be no coming back, most of you have almost everything in here as well. That’s why I can’t go with that option. Instead, we are going to focus on something else.”
“What?” Schwab the open mouth asked.
“We’ll be signing a new contract with a new marketing firm. We are shifting our attention to launching a new product, we aren’t done yet, so let’s not act like we are.”
I had gotten the idea from the anonymous offer, the only thing with a name there was the marketing company and it wasn’t a bad idea to work with them.
The room was completely silent and I could almost hear their thoughts right where I was standing.
“Everything is going to be fine,” I said in the calmest way possible. “We are going to save the company and if you don’t like my decision, there’s nothing you can do about it. I’m here by right and so far I’ve made the right decision for this company.”
“By letting your wife who has no idea run things? Look where it’s gotten us” Schwab said sharply.
I smiled at him and walked back to my seat. “That will be all for today, you’re dismissed,” I said quietly and watched as they dispersed without a second wasted.
