Chapter 7

Grace

It didn’t take Grace long to decide to allow David to join her for lunch with the CEO of Morgan Fletcher Investments and her counsel. Grace felt the young man had real potential and wanted to encourage it.

She’d made her living finding diamonds in the rough and polishing them into top-flight corporate executives. Brook was the only one of her grandchildren who Grace felt had that potential. That was why she’d had Brook’s mother, Ava, approach Brook about working with them this summer. Grace wanted to expose Brook to the ins and outs of running a business.

The main attributes Grace looked for in her protégés were a drive to succeed and a tangible demonstration that they could successfully complete the projects she set them on.

Though that wasn’t entirely true. Drive manifested in different ways, especially with regard to high school and college-age kids. Most were the sort who worked diligently to try to mold themselves into what they thought others wanted. Those kids focused on grades, extracurriculars, placement scores, and padding their college applications and/or résumés.

After graduation, a young person of that type too often went in one of two unpleasant directions. That is, they either turned into an elitist snob who looked down on the vast unwashed, or they became a wild child. New York was teeming with them, especially the ones who went the snob route. They were Ivy League types who were still trying to measure themselves against everyone else. Their typical metric was either how much money they were making or the number of notches on their bedposts. Many times, they tried to excel at both.

The perfect examples were Brook’s sorority sisters and her current boyfriend, Bastian.

As a side note, Grace wouldn’t be opposed to David deciding to kick the crap out of the boy for his pretentious name alone. She hadn’t felt that way until her investigators reported that he was cheating on her granddaughter while he was back home. Meanwhile, he was repeatedly telling Brook how much he missed her.

Grace had found that the driven ‘it’s all about me’ types had their uses. They made excellent traders, but only if they were properly supervised, since they would otherwise venture into gray areas. Frankly, if they were working without oversight, that type would get into anything that would earn them a lot of money. She found that if she put them together with others like them, their competitiveness could result in better profits.

They were less useful in management positions, especially upper management positions, because they were focused only on themselves. As a result, they were the furthest thing from inspirational leaders to their subordinates.

David was special because, at heart, he was just a regular guy. That was a bold statement when you looked at everything he’d achieved in his life. But in truth, David was one of the most down-to-earth people Grace had ever met. He simply figured out how to get stuff done, and he worked brilliantly with others to do it.

With that in mind, she expanded the number of people attending this particular meeting to include her granddaughter. She’d recognized that David had rubbed off on Brook. When they were together, they made an excellent team.

Grace’s car pulled up in front of David’s hotel, where he had gone to change into a suit for their meeting.

“He’ll be right down,” Brook said a moment after her phone chirped.

“How’s it been, seeing him again?” Grace asked.

Brook gazed out the window before looking back at her grandmother.

“I wish I’d met him in college,” she finally said, then added, “His mom made a point to tell me that he’s single.”

“Interesting,” Grace said diabolically.

David picked that moment to open the door.

“Grandmother!” Brook complained.

“What’s up with you two?” David asked once he was settled and the car pulled into traffic.

“We were talking about Brook’s love life,” Grace overshared.

“So, when do I get to meet this future breakup and size him up for myself?” he asked.

“Never!” Brook growled.

“I just reminded her that you were single,” Grace said to wind her granddaughter up.

David smiled when Brook didn’t take the bait and changed the subject of their conversation. Grace was surprised at the maturity her granddaughter was showing.

“What should we know before the meeting?”

“To this point, I haven’t met with Morgan Fletcher’s CEO, Rebecca LaPointe. Before I present their offer to the board this afternoon, I want to have a face-to-face conversation with her. I want to hear in her own words what she plans,” Grace shared.

She was surprised when David didn’t say anything. He just nodded and looked inscrutable. She then glanced at Brook, who was staring out the window. Grace wondered why the two of them had gone quiet.

“We’ve arrived, ma’am,” the driver announced.

Grace had arranged for the meeting to occur at Delmonico’s, an iconic restaurant in the financial district. Originally opened in 1837, the current version of Delmonico’s was an old-school steakhouse that had become one of the best places to go for a business lunch. Grace had reserved the Board Room, one of their private rooms for diners.

She’d arranged for the prix fixe lunch to be served. The starter was Eggs Benedict, followed by a choice of Delmonico Steak or Lobster Newberg. The meal was finished with Baked Alaska. Every one of those dishes was claimed to have been invented at Delmonico’s.

Phyllis was waiting for them when they entered.

Grace scanned the dining area and judged it a good choice. The white curtains and tablecloths, chandeliers, and giant paintings on the walls made it feel like it could have existed in another century. The ambiance was that of an institution. Although it first gave an impression of stuffiness, when she looked over the patrons, she saw every type of clothing, from elegant to casual.

The Board Room was just off the main dining room. When they walked into it, all Grace could think was that it exuded power. The walls were covered in beautifully oiled and polished oak paneling. High-backed leather chairs surrounded an elegant wood table.

“You’ve outdone yourself, Phyllis. This is perfect,” Grace said to her PA.

Before they could sit down, the door opened, and their guests arrived.

Grace sized up her adversaries. Ms. LaPointe seemed to have covered up suspected freckles with a heavy coat of makeup. Her neck was starting to sag, and her chin had been softened by hints of age. The wages of hard living were evident around her eyes.

Godfrey Trevin, her attorney, had jowls—honest-to-goodness jowls, just like a Saint Bernard. They wobbled beside his mouth when he talked.

“Ms. Davenport,” Ms. LaPointe said as she reached out a hand. “I appreciate that you didn’t keep me waiting.”

She then turned her stern gaze toward David and Brook.

“I know you two from somewhere. Is this ‘bring your kids to work’ day?”

Grace saw Brook’s ire rise, but David gave Ms. LaPointe his winning smile.

“You saw us earlier today. We were the ones who inconvenienced you on your way to somewhere,” David said.

“Yes. There is a time and place for that sort of thing, but when people need to get to work is not one of them. In the future, you need to learn that you aren’t the center of the universe, as young people tend to think,” Ms. LaPointe said.

If anything, David’s smile got bigger. Grace noted that Brook had gone from being angry to concerned when she saw David’s reaction. Grace had a feeling her granddaughter recognized that this was about to get interesting.

“I charge by the hour, so maybe we should all sit down and talk,” Mr. Trevin said to ease the tension.

During the appetizer, there was small talk that Grace steered towards David. He shared some witty stories about making Devil May Care.

When the main course arrived, Grace got down to business.

“As I explained earlier, we have our board of directors meeting this afternoon. At that time, I will propose the sale of my company.

“Now that we are so close to finalizing this deal, I was hoping you could tell me what you plan to do once you own it,” Grace said.

Ms. LaPointe had a self-satisfied look of triumph, which put Grace’s teeth on edge.

“There will be a transition period during which we will send in teams to assist your people in finding other employment,” Ms. LaPointe began.

“You don’t plan to retain any of the staff?” Grace asked.

“Only long enough to transfer your client base and their funds into our company. Once that’s done, the staff will become redundant. We’ll also break off the peripheral companies and sell them to the highest bidders,” Ms. LaPointe explained.

“We’ve created a niche in the wealth-management business by offering those services. I would think that you would want to expand on them, not sell them off, if for no other reason than to garner additional streams of income,” Grace said.

Ms. LaPointe looked at Grace as though she felt the woman was touched in the head.

“It’s fortunate for your clients that they’ll be with Morgan Fletcher because we do one thing: we maximize our client’s wealth. All the other services are simply a distraction. We do one thing, and we are the best in the business at doing it,” Ms. LaPointe said.

Grace was a little shocked when she saw both Brook and David sitting there with blank expressions. Phyllis had a horrified look that disappeared when Grace glanced at her.