Until My Last Breath

by Tiffany Patterson

  Deborah turned back to me. “Might as well finish this part of the story.”

  I nodded and began telling them about how I finally came into power at Townsend Industries, and the repercussions that move brought about.

  ****

  Then

  Robert

  “You sure you know what you’re doing?” Rick questioned me as we sat across from one another at the diner.

  I lifted an eyebrow. “You have doubts?”

  He blew out a breath, shaking his head as if something was weighing heavily on him. “Some.” He leaned in. “We got the guys behind the leaks. It’s been in the papers the machinations of John Lassiter and his son who ran away to Europe. That’s all wrapped up in a pretty little bow. And, between me and you, we know your father knew John was behind these leaks but didn’t want to jeopardize his position so he sat on the information for longer than necessary. You take that to the board and they’ll oust him and move you in as CEO.”

  I nodded as Rick laid out the plan as we had already discussed. However, his mind was still working. He believed there was more, so I remained silent until he spoke again. I was learning Rick was intelligent enough to not verbalize his concerns until he was certain there was an issue to be concerned about.

  “Your father. It’s not adding up why he didn’t oust John himself. Sure, John could’ve then started talking about the shakedowns he helped take part in, but that explanation doesn’t feel right. There’s something deeper going on.”

  I pivoted my gaze from Rick’s profile to look out the window. I lifted the cup of coffee to my lips, letting the warm caffeinated beverage make its way down my throat. In my gut, I knew Rick was right. There was something deeper. John was behind the leaks, but he’d felt he had my father by the balls for some reason, and it wasn’t just the handful of activities that Rick had uncovered. Sure, they weren’t legal, but any shrewd lawyer could’ve easily explained them away.

  “I’ve thought about it as well. But I won’t ever find out what my father’s hiding if I don’t make this move. Townsend Industries is being held back. There is so much more we can do, and he’s a fucking fossil. His time as CEO has come to an end.”

  Rick turned to me. “I figured you’d say that. I’ll continue digging.”

  After tipping the half empty cup of coffee in his direction, I placed it on the table and stood, my hand going to the pocket of my pants suit.

  “I got it this time,” Rick insisted, holding out his hand. “As much as you’re paying for my services, I can afford to splurge on your coffee this morning.”

  I dipped my head at him and sauntered off to the car waiting outside to take me to Townsend Industries.

  The trip took about thirty minutes to get from the diner to Townsend headquarters but I was still about a half an hour early. I headed into my office on the second from the top floor, exactly one floor below my father’s office. I thumbed through and sorted the files I would need for the meeting that was to begin promptly at nine a.m. It was an emergency meeting of the board. Since John had been arrested, and it became public that he was behind the leaks at our company, the board members had all flown in, and were scrambling to put out fires. They’d questioned and damn near interrogated my father on what he knew. So far, he’d held firm, acting just as shocked as everyone else at discovering his long-time friend and ally was behind the leaks.

  I knew better. I also knew how good of an actor my father was, in all areas of his life.

  “You ready for this?”

  I lifted my gaze from my desk to see my father at my door. Surprised at first, I quickly recovered. My father rarely ever ventured down from his office floor to where I worked. He always had his secretary summon me to come to him. I peered at him as he moved into my office, closing the door behind him.

  I frowned at the trickle of sweat that ran down the side of his face. He wiped it away with a handkerchief and began pacing back and forth, his face red.

  “I’ve fucking told them all I knew about John. Now here they are with this emergency meeting bullshit. Don’t they know I’ve got work to do! We are still doing damage control for all of the shit John stirred up. Look …” he urged, moving toward my desk, staring at me wide-eyed, “don’t say anything. Let me do all of the talking. I’ll just reiterate what I’ve told them before, they’ll find nothing the matter, and we’ll go on to business as usual.”

  I stood, planting my palms against the shiny wood of my desk. “Is that what you want?”

  “Yes.”

  I shrugged. “Fine. Let’s get to it, shall we?”

  Loading my files into one hand, I extended the other for my father to proceed out the door. I followed, shutting it behind me.

  Minutes later, we exited the elevator on my father’s floor, after he insisted we take it for one flight up.

  “Remember, don’t say anything,” my father muttered under his breath as we entered into the conference room that was a ways down the hall. A few of the board members had already arrived, and were filling their plates with the catered fruits and croissants.

  My stomach growled, reminding me that all I’d had that day so far was a half a cup of black coffee. But I wasn’t in the mood to eat. I’d satisfy my appetite after the meeting was over.

  “Gentlemen,” my father greeted, extending his hand to shake with the board members.

  I did the same, greeting each member who was in the room or that entered. Within minutes the room was filled with ten men, excluding my father and myself. We all sat around the long, extended, oval-shaped conference table, files in front of us.

  “Robert.”

  My father and I both turned to the first man who spoke, Graham Dunleavey.

  “Graham,” my father answered.

  “I know that each one of us has spoken with you individually, but we all agreed that it would be best for everyone to meet together. To get some clarity on the situation and to figure out where Townsend Industries goes from here.”

  “Well, gentlemen, that’s precisely what I’ve been wanting to discuss with all of you.”

  Raising an eyebrow in his direction, I sat back in my chair, folding my arms over my lap and crossing my legs. I was looking forward to hear what he had to say. Seeing as how not twenty minutes prior, in my office, he was ranting about how much he wanted them all to go the hell away.

  “Gentlemen, it came as much of a shock to me, as it did all of you, to learn that John Lassiter was working behind all of our backs to betray Townsend Industries and leak some very private information to the press, as well as our competitors. These leaks not only harmed Townsend in the minds of our customers, but it emboldened our enemies. Some of which, have actively sought out to steal partners from us, move in on customers, and even recruit employees. John’s machinations did a lot of damage. Nevertheless, it was my diligent pursuit to find out who was behind these leaks that prevailed. Not only did Townsend’s security staff push to uncover the truth, they quickly responded once it was found out that John was the culprit behind all of this mess.”

  “Is that right, Robert?”

  Everyone turned to Jaimie Lane, chairman of the board.

  “That is, Jaimie.”

  “If everyone was working so hard, as you say, why did it take so long? John was right under our noses this whole time.”

  I turned back to my father, angling my head, waiting to hear the answer as well.

  “Things like this take time. Unfortunately, John was extremely stealthy in his—”

  “Stealthy?” William, another board member, questioned.

  “Yes, Will. As I described before, John worked to keep his liaisons a secret. Frankly, I am surprised that after years of service to this company, and the amount of money he made off of it, that he would betray us in this way. But, as I stated, our security staff—”

  “The ones who took nearly two years to figure out that John, who was right under our nose the entire time, was attempting to bring this company down from the inside?�
�� Will demanded angrily.

  I remained silent, slowly turning from Will back to my father. His mouth was ajar, face red as he ran his finger around the collar of his shirt, trying to loosen it. He looked over at me, eyes searching, silently asking me to speak up, to intervene in some way. He was feeling the pressure.

  I pressed my back against the chair even more firmly, sitting up straighter, but kept my mouth shut. I had strict instructions not to speak during the meeting. I was doing as I was told.

  “Yes. As I stated—”

  “As you’ve stated to each of us over the phone, in private conversations, that John knew this or that, but you haven’t explained to any of us what you knew,” Michael, another member, spoke; his voice was tight with agitation.

  “What I knew?” my father repeated.

  “Yes,” came a chorus of responses from the entire room.

  Again, my father stumbled on his words, looking to me before blinking and turning back to the men seated around the table. He was stuck. He knew if he told the truth and spilled what he did know, he was out on his ass. However, if he lied and said he knew nothing, then he’d look incompetent, and again, he’d be out on his ass. They had cornered him with their line of questioning.

  “I think it’s apparent to all of us in the room, you’re either holding something back, Robert, or you were in cahoots with John from the beginning.”

  “That is absolutely ridiculous thinking!” my father retorted. “Townsend Industries is my life. It’s my family’s legacy. Why would I, of all people, seek to destroy it?”

  “That’s precisely what all of us would like to know?” That was Graham again.

  “Because it’s clear to us that you’ve been hiding a lot from the board.”

  “Which is why we have come to the unanimous conclusion that your tenure as CEO of Townsend Industries has come to an end. Effective immediately,” Graham, the obvious ringleader of the board, spoke his piece.

  You could hear a pin drop as eleven pairs of eyes pinned my father, awaiting his reaction.

  “This is preposterous!” he yelled, pounding his fist on the hardwood table.

  I lifted an eyebrow. Clearly, he was losing his cool. My father often lost it at home, behind closed doors, but never in front of the board. He knew the end was here and he was not equipped to handle it.

  “Townsend Industries will die without me. You don’t even have a suitable replacement.”

  “We do, actually,” James Cooley interjected.

  The room shifted and everyone turned to me, including my father.

  “We’ve found a more than adequate replacement.”

  My father’s eyebrows nearly touched his hairline as he sputtered for a few heartbeats. His face was beet red.

  He was pissed.

  I grinned.

  “You can’t do this!” he yelled, again pounding his fist as if his little show of force meant anything. “Robert, what the hell are you doing?”

  Angling my head, I stared at him.

  “Son, this cannot happen.”

  I continued to stare.

  “Are you even going to acknowledge the treachery you’re trying to pull?”

  I touched my chest with my hand. “Oh, you want me to speak now? Because up in my office you told me not to say a word during the meeting.”

  “Wha— Well, th-tha—”

  “Never mind,” I began, rising from my chair to move to the front of the room. “It’s no longer your place to decide who speaks and who doesn’t speak in these meetings.” I buttoned my suit jacket and clasped my right hand around my left wrist in front of me, staring out at the board members. “Gentlemen, I think we all know you’ve made the right decision.”

  It was a decision I’d worked weeks on, behind the scenes. I’d communicated with every single man in this room, over the phone or in person, negotiating for my position as CEO. My father had been unaware, of course. But had he had any foresight he would’ve seen this coming.

  “You are my son! How could you betray me like this?”

  I sharply turned to my father, eyes narrowed, and my breathing increasing ever so slightly. This son of a bitch was not about to pull the fucking family card on me. The only time he’d treated me like a son was for the public, or when he needed me to fix an issue within the company.

  “As you’ve stated, Townsend Industries is our legacy. And I’m saving it … from you.” I glared at him.

  “Robert—”

  My father and I both turned to Graham.

  He cleared his throat. “Senior. Robert Senior. All of us have become aware that not only did you know about some of the ways in which John was working to bring down Townsend, you did not try to put a stop to it. Now, from what we’ve learned, you did this because you didn’t want to appear weak to the public or to the board. However, that cover up lead you into deeper trouble. It’s clear that you can no longer be trusted to run this company. Robert Junior has the experience and expertise to not only run Townsend today, but to lead this company into the future. He has already shared some reusable energy initiatives this company can begin implementing, as well as how to best position Townsend for the incoming technology wave. You, on the other hand, seem to want to be stuck in the dark ages. It’s best that you step down peacefully and professionally, and take your retirement to enjoy it with your family. At home.”

  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

  I turned to my father. “Security is waiting for you at the door. They will help you remove some items from yo— my office before you are escorted down to your awaiting car. Anything you cannot carry today, will be delivered to Townsend Manor.”

  “You can’t do this!” he frantically opposed, looking between me and the door, in which two security guards had just entered. “Get your hands off of me!” he demanded when the security guards began taking him away.

  I turned to the board members, ready to get the remainder of the meeting over with so I could begin doing the business that needed to be done. However, I was stopped by one last, ominous warning by my father, as he held onto the door.

  “You will regret this,” he seethed as he pointed at me. “You have no idea what you’ve just done.”

  I narrowed my eyes on him as he was finally pulled away from the door and it was shut. I didn’t get the sense that he was directly threatening me but there was something deeper in his statement. Suddenly, the meeting I’d had with Rick that morning came flooding back to my memory. All of my father’s secrets hadn’t been uncovered. And I had a feeling the move I’d just played was about to unleash the remainder of his secrets, for better or worse.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Then

  Deborah

  Pushing out a breath, I glanced at my watch again. It read five-thirty on the dot. I looked around doctor’s office at a few patients who were reading magazines or quietly chastising their toddlers for being too loud. My eyes landed on one couple who sat huddled together, thumbing through a parenting magazine. I smiled as the man’s hand went to his wife’s belly, rubbing small circles around the basketball-sized bump.

  My hand went to my own belly. I was already twenty weeks pregnant. Most days, if I wore the right shirt other people couldn’t tell I was expecting, but the changes in my body were evident to me. My belly was rounder, more firm, and for some reason it itched like crazy.

  Again, I glanced at my watch. Two minutes past five-thirty and Robert still hadn’t shown up. Thinking of my husband, I frowned. He’d been distant lately. Never had he been totally absent, but he had yet to engage in this pregnancy the way I thought he would. From the beginning he’d talked about children, and now, here we were pregnant, and it felt like he’d disengaged a little.

  “Townsend!”

  My head popped up when the receptionist called my name. I stood and headed to the window to meet her.

  “Are you Ms. Townsend?”

  “Mrs. Townsend,” his deep voice sounded behind me, igniting all of my senses.


  I turned, a smile cresting on my lips. “You’re here. I thought you got stuck in California or something.”

  “And miss the opportunity to hear our baby boy’s heartbeat for the first time? Not a chance.” Lowering his head, he pressed a kiss to my lips.

  I sighed as his hand slipped around mine, cupping it.

  “Mrs. Townsend, the doctor will see you now,” the receptionist stated.

  “My husband can come as well, right?” I questioned, hoping she said yes without any problems.

  “Absolutely.”

  We followed the receptionist through a door and down the hall to a private room where we were met by a nurse practitioner. She took my measurements, drew my blood, had me give a urine sample, and then had me lay on the table and unbutton my pants in preparation for the ultrasound.

  “I can’t believe we’ll be able to find out the gender today.” I squeezed Robert’s hand as I laid on the table in the doctor’s office, next to the ultrasound machine.

  Robert brought my hand to his lips, kissing it, as he stood over me. “I already know what the gender will be, but if you need this test for confirmation …” He shrugged.

  Smirking, I placed my free hand under my head. “You’re so sure it’s a boy. What if it’s a girl?”

  He was shaking his head before the question was out of my mouth. “It’s a boy.”

  “They’ll also test to see if anything’s wrong with the baby.” Biting my lower lip, I brought my hand down, running it over my stomach. I grew nervous at the thought that something might be wrong with the baby.

  “He’s fine,” Robert reassured. “You know we nee—” He was cut off when the doctor knocked and entered the room.

  “We’ll talk later,” he said.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Townsend, great to see you again. You’re here for your twenty-week ultrasound. Time is flying, isn’t it?” Dr. Muller quipped.

  I laughed. “I can’t believe it.”

  “Having any more bouts of nausea?” she asked while pressing on my abdomen.

  I opened my mouth, but Robert responded, “She got sick last week while eating split pea soup. She normally loves it, but even the mention of it and—” He stopped when he looked down at me. “Yeah, she makes that face.”