I grunted.
“This conversation isn’t over.”
I stared at the papers in my hands for a moment before looking over to my right. When I did, she was gone. I mulled her words over for another minute but then pushed them out of my mind. I was doing the right thing. Patience would eventually get on board with my decision.
Without even realizing what I was doing, I pressed the button to talk to the one man I owed my life to.
“Didn’t you just hang up the phone with my wife?”
“Good morning, Father,” I responded.
“Morning, son. You’re headed to the breakfast meeting with Truth Financials?”
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me through the phone. “Yes, I’ll have a full report to the board by the end of the week.”
“I’m certain you will. But you didn’t call to discuss business.”
“I didn’t.” I paused. “When you were courting Mother, was there anything or anyone that stood in your way?” I didn’t understand why I wanted to know the answer to that question but I did.
“Have you met me?”
I let out a small chuckle.
“There were a few that tried, however.”
Raising my right wrist to my face, I saw that I had another twenty minutes before we would arrive at the restaurant. With that knowledge, I sat back against the seat and began listening, undistracted, to my father’s story.
****
Then
Robert
“This is not the best time to be doing something like this, son.” My father’s voice was thick with agitation.
I gave him a deadpan expression, refusing to allow myself to give into the anger that consumed me whenever he dared to speak of my and Deborah’s relationship. It was, after all, our engagement party, and the last thing Deborah would want is for me to make a scene.
“Something like this?” I questioned, lifting an eyebrow.
“Yes, this.” He nodded, looking around the expansive space of the foyer we stood in. We were in Townsend Manor, the home I’d grown up in and that my parents currently lived in. The Manor, as it was often referred to, was a ten-thousand-square-foot mansion which resided on over six acres of land. My father’s father had purchased the property when my father was still a teenager, and began building Townsend Manor once my father took over Townsend Industries. It was the only home I’d ever known before moving away to go to college. And while it had been large enough, I refused to move back in once I returned to Williamsport, much to both of my parents’ dismay.
Townsend Manor hadn’t been my first choice to host our engagement party, but my mother had insisted. And Deborah had been pleased at her invitation, thereby practically twisting my arm to agree. Now, here we were, two months after announcing our engagement and my father was in my face about it.
“This,” I began, “is my fucking engagement party, in case you failed to understand.”
“I recognize that, and I am asking you if you believe this is the right time to be getting married? Townsend Industries is still mired in all of these leaks, the board keeps on my ass about our stock prices, and this damn energy crisis won’t let up.” His voice was tense and full of the stress of everything he’d just mentioned. I watched as he ran his forefinger along the collar of his tuxedo shirt, to provide space between the collar and his thick neck, obviously overheating.
I stepped closer. “You don’t think I’ve been working on everything you’ve just mentioned? How many times have I told you that Townsend needs to expand our product and services line? The energy markets are too tumultuous with everything going on internationally, for us to be so reliant on oil. Technology is the wave of the future, and you keep getting in the fucking way of—”
“Now you listen, son. You might have done a good job helping to run Townsend while I was ill—”
“Helping? Is that what you fucking call it?” I questioned, moving even closer. “I did more thanhelp. I’ve been running this goddamn company for the better part of five years. You know it and I know it. The only people who don’t know it is the board, and I know how much you don’t want them to find out.”
He grunted, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, once they do find out, we’ll see how much they think of you running the company with falling stock prices and a decreasing market reach.”
“Because you won’t take your foot all of the way off the gas. You won’t fully implement any of my suggestions nor will you allow our R&D division to fully pursue alternative energies. You’re the one getting in the way of progress, and once you’re removed from position as CEO, I will be able to take Townsend into the next decade and century to reach its full potential.”
I started to walk away, done with my father and the conversation for the time being, but his words pulled me back.
