Chapter 54

Hailey sat and took notes as Rob Costello, a man whose name she didn’t catch and, inexplicably, Nikki Bradshaw, gave their presentation about the future of Waterford & Waterford. Hailey understood that Beth and her PA, the indispensable Bonita Nejara, took notes of their own but she was proud that Beth often asked about her impression of meetings and people.

The text Phil had sent her while Tiffany showered had let her relax and turn her focus toward her job. It helped distract her from from the mess her personal life was becoming.

Hailey was impressed with how concise Costello was. She was also mortified when he approached her before the meeting with his hand extended.

“You must be Hailey!” he said with a large grin. “I have to tell you, that guy of yours is immensely proud of you. I’m sorry for stealing him away for so long but I want you to know that you have every reason to be proud of him, too.”

He proceeded to tell her that the only thing that was certain to be on the desk that Phil used was a picture of Hailey taken before the dinner at Les Lumières Sur la Ville and one of the group taken at the cabin a few weeks earlier.

“I knew things were over when he stuck that in his briefcase Saturday,” Rob said with a sad nod.

The presentation was thorough, Hailey had to admit. There was an overview of the problems the company had encountered – and Nikki had the grace to blush when Rob pointed out that an auditor was investigating to see exactly how much money was misappropriated.

“The problem as an outside consultant we brought in sees it,” Rob continued, “is that too much authority rested at the top. Financial decisions were made without oversight. We started out with five employees and that was fine. Now we’re no longer a Mom and Pop shop. We have – had – 73 full-time employees working for us a month ago and so many contractors we couldn’t even find them all.

“It was a mistake and it has been rectified. Simply put, Mrs. Barton-Warner, Waterford is not a losing entity. It was fine when it was run by a man who understood the business and what we were trying to accomplish. It failed in the last year because of outside considerations and internal decisions. During that time, the viable products we’ve produced have been shelved because the capital was invested in an idea whose time has come and gone.

“Our consultant correctly pointed out that our main product, a hybrid networking-gaming site, was obsolete now. It might be better than those on the market but it wasn’t different enough to set it apart – and to draw away their users or their advertisers. That is the bad news.

“The good news is that the ideas we’ve worked on are still there and they are still viable. They are also uniquely designed to capture two underserved markets: the sometimes gamer who doesn’t want to spend 100 hours a week on a couch and whose interests are more strategy based than skill based; and the high-end business market whose holdings do not include a tech-based element to keep up with the ever-changing climate.”

Hailey had sat in enough meetings that Beth had led to see the signals and understand their importance. Beth had set down the pen she was using and taken off the glasses she had come to need in the past couple of years. This was a sign that Costello had said something that intrigued her but had moved away from it too quickly.

“Excuse me, Mr. Costello,” Hailey interrupted. “I’m sorry to jump in here. I think it’s important that we have some idea of the markets you’re talking about. We’ve seen many times when a company perceives a need for its product that just isn’t there.”

Beth’s gaze flicked to her intern but she didn’t speak.

“Of course,” Rob said, understanding fully what Phil had meant when he described Hailey as “sharp.” “The market we think we can reach fastest is right in this room. Mrs. Barton-Warner...”

“Beth is fine,” Beth said. “It saves a lot of time.”

“I’ll bet,” Rob agreed with a laugh. “Beth, I spoke to our outside consultant about this. He is fairly familiar with the inner workings of your corporation. I asked him how much time and money it would save you to be able to access particular corporate information from your tablet or your laptop from a secure server. He said he believed any CEO with as many holdings as Barton has would find it beneficial. He said he believed, but couldn’t state with certainty, that you have to wait for that information sometimes for days or weeks as it trickles in from the various sources.”

It was only then that Hailey understood that the “outside consultant” had been Phil. She smiled to herself as it dawned on her that Beth Warner’s son’s name had not been mentioned once. Rob wasn’t playing on his ties; he was banking on his product.

“He was correct,” Beth said, smiling slightly and shaking her head. “I suspect he’s heard me complain about it over dinner many times.”

“Perhaps,” Rob said with a nod. He walked Beth through the security features and showed her the search engine designed to sort through myriad files and documents to locate the one she wanted. It was a dummy, of course, because he didn’t have access to any Barton corporate pages – although he probably could have if he’d wanted to.

“That is beneficial,” Beth agreed. “The problem is it’s too beneficial. I am not a tech person. I’ll have you know it upfront and I’ll thank you for not introducing technical terms and other gobblygook that make my eyes glaze over. But I am security conscious and I’ve been warned any number of times that what is convenient for me is not the best way to handle corporate security.”

“You’ve been warned by people who make their living from scaring people like you,” Rob said firmly. “They sell you dozens if not hundreds of high-end computers and hundreds of thousands of dollars in software. Although the Barton IT department is solid, it is not well versed in corporate security. Their job is to make sure you can get your emails and to replace hardware as it wears out. Don’t be upset, please. It’s that way at a lot of places.

“You spend millions of dollars on outside firms to handle what a dedicated entity could do for a fraction of the cost. I’m not trying to sell you anything except our ideas and I think once you run them past your IT chief, she’ll agree with me.

“The gamer market, I know from talking to our outside consultant, is also present here – in the form of your assistant, Miss Warren. She has several friends who game frequently but she isn’t interested enough to join them. Our consultant believes she would, however, be willing to play a strategy-based game that didn’t require daily attention. He likened it to the way pen pals used to play chess through the mail and I’m not sure he isn’t right.”

“I have found him to be right about most things,” Hailey said, smiling sadly. “And he is again. I’d like to join my friends but I don’t want to take the time or energy to develop the skills they already possess in the games they prefer. I think many people are relegated to the role of spectator for that reason and I could see where a brand like you’re discussing would probably keep a lot of relationships intact.”

Beth chuckled along with the rest of the people in the room.

“I’m going to turn the presentation over to my assistant, Miss Bradshaw, who will give you details on how we think Barton Holdings Group will benefit from bringing Waterford & Waterford into the fold.”

Hailey stifled a groan as the young woman to Rob’s left stood and moved to a prominent spot in the room. She was dressed conservatively. The cut of her suit was almost identical to that Beth preferred. She wore no jewelry and her hair was a single color.

By the end of her presentation, Beth Warner was rubbing her chin thoughtfully and nodding along at salient points. Phil’s influence was obvious, not only in the way the presentation was laid out but in the demeanor of the people who’d given it. Rob made no attempt to cover up the company’s shortcomings. He had laid them out succinctly and accepted responsibility for things that he probably didn’t even know existed a month earlier. Nikki had been concise in her portion. She didn’t use verbiage she didn’t understand. She didn’t make up numbers or use “what-if” scenarios.

She simply urged the company to consider what a tech-based subsidiary could add and then listed in detail how Waterford viewed things. Hailey found she was impressed, not only with the people in the room and what they’d told her but on Phil’s role in getting them to this point. His time had not been wasted.

“OK, let’s talk bottom line,” Beth said, sitting back and sipping from a bottle of water. “Your outside consultant has also confided in me. He didn’t betray secrets but, he is my son, so he asked my advice on certain matters when it became clear to him that you were being jerked around. I know you’re in trouble. How much would it take to get you out from under while we investigate a buyout?”

“It might be easier to get them in receivership,” Hailey pointed out, playing devil’s advocate.

Beth smiled at her.

“I have been informed by a reliable source that if the company goes to receivership there will be nothing of value to purchase,” Beth said. “He mentioned something about taking a hatchet to every piece of software and donating all the patents to charity. I got the distinct impression that everyone at Waterford would rather see that happen than to see a company let them fail just to drive down the price.”

“We would,” Rob said.

“Oh,” Hailey replied. “Yeah, I can see him doing that.”

“I return to my question,” Beth said.

“A short-term influx of $600,000 to be deducted from the overall purchase price,” Rob admitted. “We have notes due at the end of the week and we won’t be able to cover them. Long-term, we honestly believe the company is self-sustaining. Unless I am replaced as COO after the buyout, I will assure you that we won’t be coming with our hands out every month or even every year. We might ask for additional investment if we create a product with broad enough appeal to warrant it. I wouldn’t have come to you unless I was positive that we had more to offer you in the long run than you can offer us in the short. I have too much respect for your family.”

“Thank you,” Beth said sincerely. “I have to say – and I hope Miss Bradshaw will forgive my forthrightness – that I urged my son to abandon you to your fates. I believed the company to be doomed by the behavior of those who operated it. I haven’t spoken to him much over the past few weeks but I know he worked tirelessly to save Waterford. He came within one unscrupulous company of doing just that. I don’t want to see Waterford fail because I don’t want to see him fail.”

“That can’t be a consideration,” Rob said. “Phil was firm on this. If we succeed, it’s on merit. I agree with him and so does Sam Waterford.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Beth replied. “The thing is, I have to sell this to my directors and that is not something that is done overnight. I don’t think it will be an issue but I also don’t think it will be done in time to help you. If we had two more weeks we could complete this with little trouble. But Barton can’t enter into a deal of this magnitude without verifying your claims and presenting a report to the board of directors for their approval.”

Rob closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. He didn’t slump in his chair and bury his head in his hands. He simply nodded his understanding. He knew it had been a long shot.

“I, however, am as impressed with the future of Waterford as my son,” Beth continued. “You should know that he attempted to liquidate some of his holdings to invest. He doesn’t do that lightly. He was even willing to use his personal dwelling as collateral for a loan. If he hadn’t followed my advice and leased it from his own holding company he would have succeeded. I spoke to my husband over the weekend. He and I are willing to cover your shortfall. Essentially, he and I are going to do what Philip would have. We are going to become your short-term banker as we work though the long-term logistics of acquiring stock in Waterford.

“I want it known that this would not have happened without your effective presentation today. I would have let Waterford fail if I didn’t see a benefit from saving it. As I told my son six weeks ago, this is business and there is no charity in finance. I will instruct our financial adviser to purchase your debt from the banks as soon as you provide the list of creditors. Is that sufficient to stave off bankruptcy?”

“Absolutely,” Rob said. “Once GameChill understands that we’re not going under, we’ll divest ourselves of ‘Who’s It.’”

“Not to them, I’d wager,” Beth said.

“Not on your life,” Rob said. “They have 11 more days of exclusive negotiations and then we will contact their competitors.”

“Good to hear,” Beth said. “We’ll have the paperwork delivered to your office by Thursday. I’ll let you know when the board would like to meet. Miss Bradshaw, you did a very thorough job of pointing out the benefits we’ll see and I believe you will be asked to do it again to them. I hope that won’t present a problem.”

“No,” Nikki said. She looked frightened but her voice was strong. “I will work with Mr. Costello and Mr. Waterford to refine it further and we’ll make ourselves available at your convenience.”

“Excellent!” Beth said brightly. “Now, I’d like to treat you all to an early lunch so I can hear what my son has been up to for the last month.”

Phil eventually grew tired of watching the birds at the pond and wandered back up to where Tiffany still sat.

“What did you mean?” she asked in a gentle voice, “about emotions? Were you talking about you?”

“I was talking about Hailey,” Phil replied, plopping down on the blanket again. “She has always measured her worth by what others thought of her – her mother, her teachers, her friends. She wants to be wanted. The freaky deal she had with you girls and her boyfriends creeps me out. It is freaky. If you think it isn’t, you need some help.”

“I guess,” Tiffany said. She had frowned at Phil’s description and the frown continued. “No one got hurt so I don’t see the problem.”

“How do you know that no one got hurt?” Phil asked. “You paint all these guys with the same brush. They wanted it. They didn’t care. They liked it. Maybe they did care but knew the cost of saying something.”

“Yeah, no repeat performance,” Tiffany said, gaining a bit of her bravado back. “Most of those guys looked forward to the prospect of having it happen again. Don’t be naïve.”

“Most of them,” Phil said. “Others might have had genuine feelings. Let me ask you something: Would you do the same? If you get a boyfriend before Hailey does are you going to offer a three-way with her?”

“No!” Tiffany said. “Wait, that’s not a fair question.”

“I think it is,” Phil said. “Even if you hooked up with a tool like Jared you wouldn’t toss Hailey at him to keep him happy. The thing is, she wasn’t trying to keep her boyfriend happy. She was trying to keep you happy. She liked the power it gave her – over you and over the guys. She expected it to give her power over me after what we did at the cabin. I think it threw her a little bit when it didn’t. I told her I didn’t want a repeat – and I don’t.”

“You told her that?” Tiffany wondered.

“I told her I would be uncomfortable having others in our relationship,” Phil confirmed. “A week later she gives you the OK to diddle yourself in the backseat of the car while I was driving. If I’m dating Hailey – or anyone else – I am committed to them. I expect them to be committed to me just as thoroughly. I really didn’t think it was necessary to spell it out but I guess it is. A date, a kiss, sitting nearby while someone masturbates; I find all of that inappropriate in a committed relationship. It has nothing to do with you or the others. It has to do with how I behave and how I expect others to behave. If you’re honest with yourself, you believe the same thing.”

“If I liked the guy, yeah,” Tiffany admitted. “And you don’t think Hailey looks at things that way?”