“I highly doubt it, Isaac. You and I both know your Uncle Anthony was as steadfast as a continent, and he wouldn’t have changed it if he didn’t think it was a good thing,” Garrett contended. “Maybe this can be a good thing. You are kind of a workaholic right now, so”
“Are you kidding me?” I shouted. “Should I not have worked my ass off to make this company successful? Should I have slacked off like other rich kids and been a playboy instead? Am I supposed to feel sorry for being a workaholic and to have helped my uncle when he needed me?”
“No, Isaac, that’s not the point,” Garrett raised his palms and switched to his calming voice. “Just calm down and think reasonably now. I am not sure why, but I believe that your uncle did this with the noblest of intentions. The way I see it, it could even be a good thing.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and ran my fingers through my hair. “How is this a good thing, Garrett?”
“OK, hear me out. Maybe this could be a turning point in your life,” Garrett explained, sitting down on the chair in front of me. “You’ve made this company into the successful business that it is today, and it’d be a shame to let all your hard work go to waste for a minor addendum in the will.”
My jaw clenched when I heard those words. I was trying hard not to punch the table, or Garrett. Or worse, the whole Board. “So, you’re suggesting I go through with this outlandish idea?”
Garrett shrugged and heaved a deep sigh. It made me angry that he had not said anything to support my viewpoint. That the new will was essentially taking away my choice. But anger wouldn’t help me in this situation. I tried to get my mind working by putting all my attention on the new will instead. Something didn’t seem right.
“I just find the timing a little suspicious,” I mumbled, turning the pages and reading the will again.
“Apparently someone had mistakenly filed it among the completed contracts and it was recovered only yesterday,” Garrett shrugged. “You can thank the renovation for that. If the archives hadn’t been moved, the will would probably have never been found.”
I scowled and bit my bottom lip. “That sounds too convenient. I bet it was Andrew, the entitled fucker! He probably wanted to run down the clock to give me less of a chance to adhere to Uncle Anthony’s ridiculous terms. Or to fight it.”
Garrett shifted uncomfortably in the chair and said, “As your lawyer, I can’t legally comment on that, since my firm represents your company, and not you as an individual or the Board members. But as your friend, I would happily consider all theories over a pint of beer, down at Gregg’s.”
A small sigh of relief escaped my lips. “That sounds good,” I nodded, leaning back in my chair and exhaling slowly. I had to resign my fate to the terms of the new will. There was no escaping it.
“It’s going to be okay, buddy,” Garrett said in his best encouraging tone. I had to give it to the guy for calming me down.
“You’re not the one who has to have a baby in the next sixteen months,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Garrett scoffed as he rose to his feet. “We all have our crosses to bear. I’ll see you at six?”
“Yeah,” I answered and stood up to walk him out of my office.
“I can walk myself out,” Garrett grinned and left.
Garrett’s absence brought out the void I was dreading. Left alone with my thoughts, my mind wandered to the idea of having a child, but also saving my company. I got up and walked to the window, the city moving below on the streets and cars making their way across the bridge. These people lived their lives one day at a time. Meanwhile, I had just been handed a ticking timebomb!
I remember that day as if it was yesterday. Seven years ago, Uncle Anthony had called to tell me about his condition. He had stage-four pancreatic cancer. The news shook my whole world. I was going to lose him to the disease.
After my parents died when I was just a kid, Uncle Anthony had raised me. He taught me everything I knew and I owed every achievement of mine to him. He was responsible for my success, as he had taught me to be great at anything I did.
As his only living kin, Uncle Anthony had wanted me by his side when he was fighting the cancer. I dropped everything to be with him, get him the care he needed. During this tough time, he told me that he wanted me to handle his business. Back then, I was just a young, dumb kid and told him that I wasn’t interested.
Only later, I realized that I not only enjoyed working in his company, but I was damn good at running it too. Uncle Anthony used to say that I had a certain way with people, and that the family charm had been passed on to me. He taught me everything about the business and I strived to become his best student. When he died, he had left me his whole real estate business. Through sheer hard work and sleepless nights, I made it a bigger and successful company by tripling his holdings!
I used to think that he must have been really proud of my achievements, if only he were alive to see it. But Uncle Anthony’s new will changed everything.
I couldn’t believe that he would include a clause like that in his will! If I was to keep control of the company, keep it away from the greedy clutches of the Board, I had to produce an heir that would eventually, take over the Marcus family business.
An heir. A child!
How on Earth was I going to produce an heir in sixteen months? I wasn’t even in a relationship at the moment, or a Casanova to have a different woman each night. I wasn’t even that popular among the ladies in my office, not that I had to time to notice whether anyone was giving me any signals. Were they? Would one of them agree to have a child with me?
No! I was just being silly. Again!
Having a child just to keep my company from being taken away from me was definitely not the way I had envisioned my life to turn out. Sure, I had wanted a family, but since taking over the company, I had become preoccupied with working hard.
I knew that this was Andrew’s doing. He was the chairman of the Board and had wanted control of Destiny Developments even when my uncle was alive. With Uncle Anthony out of the picture, and the company earning millions, it seemed that he would do anything to realize his evil plans.
“Not on my fucking watch!” I muttered angrily and clenched my fists.
For a moment, I wanted to punch the wall. But as I stood there staring at it, I realized again that my anger wouldn’t solve the problem. My fists loosened and I drew in a deep breath.
I turned and marched out of the office, heading straight to the elevator. It was like I was on a mission, as I didn’t even greet anyone on the way. Luckily, the perks of running your own company mean that my employees know when to be friendly with me and when to just stay away.
To think of something – anything else – I thought about Garrett. Throughout school and college, Garrett was the smart and dedicated kid, who graduated top of his class. He had been there for me all through childhood, when my parents passed away, and when I was being the dumb, partying jock in college. After Uncle Anthony also passed away, when I had no one left again, Garrett was there for me. In fact, he was the brother I never had – the brother I always looked up to.
Recalling our childhood memories put a smile on my face. The good times, the not-so-good times, and the even-greater times.
As the elevator dinged and the doors opened, my thoughts returned to my current situation and I clenched my jaw. I stepped out onto the floor below my office, my shoes almost slapping the marble as I stomped to Andrew’s office at the far end of the hallway.
I kept my game face on as I approached his door and opened it wide. Andrew and his secretary, Emma, were standing in his office, deep in discussion.
Andrew cleared his throat as he handed her a brown folder. “Get on this right away,” he instructed.
“Of course, sir,” Emma said with a nod and greeted me as she passed. “Mr. Marcus.”
I gave her a curt nod of acknowledgment and stepped inside, closing the door behind me.
“Isaac! To what do I owe the pleasure?” he
asked me casually. He could pretend to be casual all he wanted, but I was going to get him to blurt out the truth, no matter what!
“You knew about this and you meticulously planned it, you scaly bastard,” I growled at him.
“You’re being really hostile there, Isaac. But I can understand. The news must not have been easy for you. I take it you heard about the new details of your uncle’s will,” he said with indifference.
I scoffed at his poker face. The bastard was really good at it. “You knew about this, and you kept it quiet and waited for so long. Thus, making it impossible for me to adhere to the terms!”
“Come on, Isaac. Do you seriously think that I was capable of doing something like that?” Andrew asked. Before I could answer, he chuckled and continued, “Besides, you’re a charming and good-looking guy. You’ll have no problem producing an heir in the next sixteen months. I’ve seen you with women, you have no problem in that department.”
He winked at me and laughed loudly.
I was filled with shock and disgust at seeing him play out his scheme. I didn’t think that Andrew’s vile plans could affect me so much. But the impact of the words coming out of his mouth was more pronounced than reading them on paper. All I could do was simply shake my head in exasperation.
But I was going to fight this – I was going to fight him! I swore that I would do everything in my power to ensure that the company would not fall into Andrew’s greedy hands. This was easier said than done though. Andrew knew how to cunningly manipulate his way out of any situation and screw people. He’d willingly screw me, while calling me the most handsome guy on the planet and feeding me cake. Andrew cared for nothing and no one except making money for himself.
“You’ve wanted my uncle’s company since even before he died. But I am not going to let that happen,” I muttered angrily.
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that, and I also won’t mention to the rest of the Board members about your harassment of me,” Andrew uttered calmly and went to sit behind his desk. He had a cocky smile on his face, which made me want to punch him real hard.
Controlling my fragile temper, I turned and stomped out of his office. Today, I lost the battle. But the war had only just begun.
Why couldn’t it already be six because I really needed that drink with Garrett. All I wanted was to get out of the office and not think about Andrew anymore. And if I was really lucky, maybe there would be a woman at the bar who’d be willing to have my kid. I scoffed at how ridiculous even my thoughts sounded right now. This new will had made me such a mess! And to have a kid in this state…Lord, help me!
2
Greta
Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in….
After what seemed like taking a million slow breaths, I felt the sharp pain in my chest subside a bit. Sure, breathing calmed my hyperventilation, but it did nothing to rid the hollow pit in my stomach. I rested my head on my arms, the piles of bills crinkling under the weight.
Only bills. All overdue bills.
Each day, I tried to think of ways to get myself out of this mess, but there was no solution! This would make me spiral into a depressive mode and I would inevitably, think back to the “good, old days.” Things had been going so well when I had started my business, GrayBit Developers, four years ago. I had developed an amazing software that simplified operations for any kind of company. It was based on the basic premise of doing business and had numerous add-ons – or extra features to do various tasks such as accounting, managing employees, or creating documents.
Over time, I signed on three large clients, who had thousands of employees. They had been using my code for nearly three years and they absolutely loved it. GrayBit had grown at a fairly fast pace, and last year, we had moved into a bigger space to accommodate my seven amazing employees. As I was all for creating opportunities for women, my whole staff was female. I loved working with like-minded women who wanted to succeed and didn’t let anyone get in our way. Especially in tech, that’s not an easy achievement.
And it was all going really well until I was stabbed in the back by someone I had trusted with my life’s work, someone whom I had thought was loyal to me and the company. My best friend had turned into my worst nightmare. Tamara.
She was a coder like me and we had similar personalities as well – which is why we got along so well during the early days of the company. I thought I could trust her because she was another coder trying to make it in a man’s world, but I was so wrong. When the company was at its peak growth, the bitch stole my unique code, went behind my back, and made a deal with two of our three big clients, cutting me out completely.
I blamed it on being young and very, very naïve. Probably because I was not as business-savvy as her. Also, her betrayal left me in such a poor financial state that I didn’t even have the funds to fight the betrayal in court! I couldn’t get back what was rightfully mine.
With only one big client left, the debt started to pile up as I couldn’t make the payments to my staff and vendors. Each day, it felt as though I was drowning, and it was a mighty struggle to just put on a face for my staff. Six women relied on me now, on this company, and I was willing to do anything for them. I literally went begging for clients, but wherever I went, the companies turned us down.
And so, every day, I was becoming more and more pessimistic. What could I possibly do to fix this?
“Hey, Greta!”
The sudden sound of Mad’s voice shook me from my trailing thoughts and despair. I was surprised that I hadn’t noticed the sound of her boots that usually squeaked on the office floor. Raising my head up, I saw her leaning against the wall of my semi-enclosed office. There was a large window to the right of the door that looked out onto the street, with cars rushing past my view.
I groaned as she crossed her arms. “Why wasn’t I invited to this pity party?” Mad asked.
Madelyn, or Mad, as she preferred to be called, was my favorite person in the whole world since the first day we’d met. When I was interviewing her to be my chief coder, I had instantly liked her. She was a badass, who always wore black with combat boots and drove around on a big motorcycle at scary speeds. To normal people, Mad may seem a bit extreme, but that didn’t matter to me as she was really smart and had a killer sense of humor. Her sarcasm had been saving me from full-on depression ever since the “Tamara incident.”
Mad raised an eyebrow at me from under the short curly chestnut hair swept to the side, with the section above her right ear shaved close to the skull. Her nose ring shone in the overhead light and her blue eyes sparkled with intrigue, though soon, worry. Her smirk faded as I remained quiet.
I had always been an open book to Mad, but for some time now, I had been pretending that everything was alright. I had been trying to protect everyone. But I was tired of it now. Especially today. I just couldn’t keep up with the pretense anymore.
“What’s wrong?” Mad asked, her voice low and full of concern.
“Come in and shut the door,” I told her.
She frowned, but nodded and closed the door behind her. She sat on the chair in front of my desk and glared at me. “What’s going on?”
I drew in another long breath and sighed. “I’m in trouble, Mad. The whole company is. I’ve tried to stay positive for as long as I could, but I can’t do it anymore. If I can’t find a way to bring in more money, the company is going to be dissolved by the end of next month. Maybe even sooner.”
My tears were on the verge of spilling out, but I mentally willed myself to not break down. I quickly lowered my gaze, so that Mad wouldn’t know that I was tearing up.
Mad nodded and said in a grave tone, “I suspected that this would happen when we lost those two clients. How did that happen, by the way?”
I pursed my lips and frowned. “Tamara stole my code and made deals with those clients. She cheated all of us and now, she’s gonna drown us in debt.”
“Oh my God! I can’t believe she did that!” Mad scow
led. “Then again, she was a fake bitch, so it doesn’t really surprise me.”
“I was too trusting, too stupid, and too blind to see what she had been up to. If only I had better instincts when it came to bad people.”
“Hey,” Mad said, shaking her head. “This is not your fault. She did a fucked up thing, not you. Don’t blame yourself for this.”
“I even talked to Garrett to see if there was something I could do about it. There wasn’t. I didn’t oversee the terms of her contract, or copyright or anything like that, so there isn’t anything I could do. She stole my code from under my nose and now I’m going to lose everything. I’m going to have to tell the girls that I don’t have money to pay them,” I stuttered, and tears ran down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away with the back of my hand.
“Hey,” Mad said as she stood up and walked around the desk toward me. She crouched in front of my chair and took my hands. “It’s going to be okay, Greta.”
I sobbed. “How? How is it going to be okay?” I asked in between tears.
“We will get more clients. I’ll help you do it, you know that,” Mad assured me. “We can brainstorm a few ideas and think of some new features to offer.”
“I already have. For months I’ve been trying to figure it all out, but I’ve come up empty. There’s no way. And even if we manage to get a new client, the contract takes a while to be approved,” I explained, my shoulders slumped and head lowered in shame.
“We’re going to find a way. Okay?” Mad said, wiping my tears. “We can do it.”
I bit my lip and nodded. “I hope so.”
“We’re tough, strong, and resilient, and we can survive anything,” Mad told me.
I looked up at Mad and her blue eyes were full of the resolve I lacked and hope, which was something I no longer believed in. But she gave me some hope. Maybe I didn’t have to do it alone anymore. Mad would help me.
Twins for Brother's Best Friend Page 2