Page 37 of The Betrayer
Chapter 15
Paul
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IWATCHED MY FATHERas I waited for his response. His shoulders tensed, and a weary light crept into his eyes like he wasn’t sure what I was going to ask or whether he would like it.
It was always odd how the power dynamics had shifted since I was a child. My father might have been my boss, but I was no longer a kid looking up to him. Instead, we were two grown men having a semi-civil conversation. It seemed, possibly, hope against hope, my father might have heard what I had been telling him these past days. And maybe, just maybe, he was willing to listen to what I had to say.
His offer to make things up to me surprised me and caught me off guard. I scrambled to give him something for a moment, but then the obvious answer hit me.
“I have to go to China to meet with the investor I spoke to Friday morning. He was already shaky on us, so now I have to go and persuade him to give us the money. Without him, we can’t finalize the acquisition of INT, and then we’ll be up a creek.”
“When did this happen?” My father’s eyes narrowed. I criticized him for his work ethic, but when it came down to it, but he still cared for the company more than anything else—even himself. It was his legacy and his life’s work, and he was CEO. Even if sometimes the role was a nominal one.
“On Friday, when I met with him. Like I said.”
The information caught my father’s attention. “What did he say, exactly?”
“Nothing specific. I told you the basics,” I lied.
My father seemed to know me better than that because his eyes narrowed further. “I made sure that guy was a slam dunk.”
For a moment, I hesitated. I hadn’t been kind to my father these past few days, but that was me—I was his son. There was a difference between letting my pent-up feelings out and telling him what someone as important as a significant investor thought about him.
“Did you forget what he said?” My father gave me a look I knew well from childhood. He expected me to provide him with the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
No, I hadn’t forgotten. The words had been ringing in my head since Friday morning, around and around as I tried to figure out the best way to ensure the investors were on board. I had, in fact, been in a low level of panic about the entire thing.
But my father had been the one to bring him in, like all the others. In this, I wasn’t my father. I didn’t have the same charisma, and I didn’t have the ability to work whatever magic my father had with investors.
I was worried, though I hadn’t told anyone. I didn’t want anything out there that could jeopardize this acquisition deal from any side.
“Paul?” my father asked. He could tell from my silence that what I had told him wasn’t true, and I finally gave in. But I had to take a breath before I did.
“I think his words were, ‘He’s still the CEO, Paul, and at the end of the day, you’re still just the COO. Whatever you did, he’s the head of the company, and he can still bring it down no matter how hard you work. Markets can always change.’”
But I didn’t think. I knew.
My father stilled, and I watched his face, trying to read his reaction to the news. He was an expert poker player, and his poker face didn’t slip.
“Well,” he finally said. “I guess you’re just going to have to win him over, kid.”
He shocked me with a fatherly punch on the arm, a slight grin pulling at one corner of his mouth. It was the first I’d seen from him, minus his hello to Tara, which was strange for a man who was always smiling in some way.
Maybe everything I’d said to my father had gotten to him.
“How long are you going to be gone?”
I cleared my throat. “It should be about three weeks.”
My father nodded, used to such things. This was my first meeting in China, though, and the news had come as a surprise to me. Usually, these things consisted of flying in and flying out, but things were done differently there. And we needed this investor.
I didn’t want to think about what would happen if we didn’t land him and our deal with INT fell through. It would be a disaster of epic proportions, and nothing I did would save us—or me.
