Page 9 of Tell Me the Truth

As I was walking back to the office, all I could think about was my date with Alexandra later that evening at Notre Terre.Shoot, I should have offered to pick her up.

I called my secretary and asked her to find Alexandra’s cell phone number and text it to me. Less than ten minutes later, I got the text and dialed the number right away.

“Hello?” Alexandra answered. As soon as I heard her voice, I hoped that she didn’t think I was a creeper and was stalking her or something. She didn’t give me her number, so I got that it could appear strange that I was calling her after parting ways less than twenty minutes before.

“Hi Alexandra, it’s Ellis. I was getting back to my office and I’m sorry that I didn’t even ask you if you wanted me to pick you up for our date.” If I just kept talking, maybe she wouldn’t think to ask me how I got her number. “Can I pick you up and we can go to Notre Terre together?”

“No, but that’s really thoughtful. I don’t live far from the restaurant, so I’d rather just drive myself.” She had already planned her evening, so I decided not to push it. “Plus, it’s only drinks,” she added.

No! I want it to be more than just a drink.Thinking about how to convince her to stay for dinner, I thought about pulling out some charm. “I don’t know if you’ve been to Notre Terre before, but it’s one of the select Michelin-star restaurants in the area. I’d really enjoy your company over having to eat alone tonight. Will you stay for more than drinks and have dinner with me?”

Yes! Her answer is yes!I tried to hold back and not sound overly excited, but when our call ended I pumped my arm back and exclaimed, “Oorah!”

When I returned to my desk after meeting Alexandra at the coffee shop, all I had to do was tap the space bar on my keyboard to show the Seth BioTech website. Alexandra’s face was peering back at me, since it was what I was browsing before I left the office to get coffee.

… Alexandra Seth, four-time award winning Biotechnologist of the Year … saves more than half of a city poisoned by chemical waste … is she the future of modern medicine?

... Seth BioTech making waves across Europe, Africa, Asia … threatens to rival some of the greatest there ever was with her unique techniques … and that face! … Who knows if and when she’s going to consider marriage. Sources have been unable to confirm the presence of a man in her life …

I was already beginning to think I couldn’t go through with the Seth Biotech deal after meeting Alexandra Seth. Reading articles about her, I became sure that I didn’t want to keep trying.

However, I knew that the deal was exactly what my Board wanted, and I had no doubt many on the Board were just waiting for me to fuck up. And when I did, I’m sure they’d waste no time taking the company from under me.

But, I couldn’t let that happen. I imagined that my dad would turn over in his grave. My father always wanted me to take over the reins at Brent-Sigma and I can only feel sadness that he died before he could see it.

I had only been in my office for a short time when Richard Cross barged in, impatient to talk to me.

There is no stopping people like Richard Cross, one of the family business’ first investors. There has never been a time in my life when Richard wasn’t around. He’s basically family. I stood up and walked over to embrace him in a hug.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the funeral, I was tied up in Croatia. It’s a shame what happened to them.” I had poured two glasses of bourbon for us and Richard took a sip from his glass. “I heard the first attempt to buy out Seth BioTech didn’t go so well. Understandable though, because of your parents’ passing.”

“Yes,” I answered. I couldn’t help to think that he could care less about my parents’ death and only how the circumstances would affect his earnings. But instead of confronting Richard and accusing him, I saw it as an opportunity to bring up what I was thinking about ever since I got back from the coffee shop.

“Maybe we should venture elsewhere, Richard. Or better still, come up with something innovative of our own.” Richard stared back at me for a few seconds, like he had seen a ghost. I was sure that he was going to say something that would make my skin crawl. Instead, he burst out laughing, hysterically, like I had just cracked the funniest joke in the history of running a business empire.

Richard’s laugh was spine-tingling and eerie in its ability to explain that he saw nothing funny about what I had just said. “You know how it is in our line of work,” he finally said, after finishing his wave of laughter. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world out here. The reason Brent-Sigma is as big as it is today is that your father made sure he was the biggest and baddest dog of them all. He was always the first to buy out small startups. If they didn’t comply, he always found complex ways to tear them apart.”

I knew that he was talking about lines that my father was willing to cross in order for Brent-Sigma to continue to grow into the global prominence it is today. Richard is not only talking about lines that needed to be crossed but also new lines that needed to be drawn – the lines that he and my father had crossed and drawn together.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out, son. It’s like being in the Marines. You may not know it yet because the numbers haven’t started to drop yet, but mark my words. We are at war.” His next words were slow and calculated. “Seth BioTech is the enemy.”

When Richard left my office yesterday, the last words he left me with were, “Remember, Ellis, we are at war.” His words still hung in the air even after I was the only one in the room.

***

I’m still thinking about yesterday’s run-in with Richard and the night I just shared with Alexandra when I arrive at the office just before 8:00 a.m. I’m surprised to find Richard, and another Board member, Bart, already in the office and standing outside my door.

“Ellis, great,” Richard says, appearing excited to see me. “I was just going to call you. I…we have an idea about how to cripple Seth BioTech. You will come to really like it—”

“About that,” I interject, to his apparent disapproval. “I was thinking we should take our eyes off Seth BioTech.”

Richard steps back, with a look of concern on his face. Yesterday, when I told him, “Maybe we should venture elsewhere” or “come up with something innovative of our own,” he burst out laughing. Today, he’s not laughing, and this time he seems very irritated.

“What are you talking about?” Bart asks. Since he has to ask this question, I can tell that the conversation I shared with Richard yesterday had no bearing on him. He just brushed my ideas aside and didn’t feel the need to talk about them with anyone else.

“This again? I thought we buried this discussion, son.” When Richard makes this remark, it confirms that I should be concerned that was his takeaway from yesterday’s conversation.

After the talk Richard and I had in my office, I thought that there was a possibility of taking Seth BioTech off the table. At least something to explore. But now, hearing Richard basically saying it was never on the table I knew I needed to speak to the entire Board.

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