20. Trent
20
TRENT
“ M orning, everyone,” I said, taking a seat at the head of the table. There were a dozen murmured replies. It really was too goddamn early for a board meeting. I’d much rather still be in bed with Natasha in my arms.
Adding an extra layer of hellishness, I also had to deal with the stares of my parents from the other end of the room. They’d been kicked out of their leadership positions and didn’t have any decision-making authority, but they still had seats on the board as “advisors.”
My mother sat there, her arms crossed, eyes narrowed like she was trying to laser a hole into my father’s forehead while he made conversation with the men sitting next to him. Knowing him, he was probably bragging about the latest model he’d managed to get into his bed. I averted my eyes, turning my attention away as Pam took attendance.
“That’s everyone,” Alice announced, her fingers clicking away on her laptop. “Should I review the minutes from the last meeting?”
“Let’s get into it,” I said. The group quieted to listen to her report. My mother in particular listened intently. I resisted the urge to grind my teeth.
“Thanks, Alice,” I said when she was finished. I looked down at my own laptop, reading off my operational report of the company’s performance. “Work on the new sustainable line is progressing well. We expect to provide a couple samples at High Point at the end of this month, with the rest of the line ready to go into development by Christmas.”
“When do you anticipate the product launch?” one of the members asked.
“Stateside,” I said, “we’re looking at early next year. We’ve set our sights on the beginning of February. If that goes well, we’ll hit the international markets by summer.” The board looked pleased with that information, and I closed my laptop as our CFO rose to his feet to review the financial report from the last quarter.
“These are our latest numbers,” he said, starting up a PowerPoint presentation. “As you can tell, we’re trending up?—”
“That’s what I like to see,” my father said, earning him a chorus of chuckles. “All green lines.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Of all people, my father had no right to use that bragging tone, as if he was in any way responsible for the company’s success. He was the one who had nearly driven it into bankruptcy, along with my mother. I was the one who had saved it—the son both my parents had written off years ago.
Thank god this meeting was almost over. I pulled out my phone, texting Natasha. Coffee when I’m done?
The Coffeezilla special?
I smirked. Only if you’re going to make it for me wearing tight jeans and that sexy little apron.
How about I wear nothing but the apron?
Holy shit. This woman was too damn much, and I wanted this meeting to be over now. Maybe I’d skip coffee and invite Natasha up to my office for a quickie. I adjusted my pants subtly.
Are you almost done?
Just wrapping up, I typed.
Please stop by my office when you’re done, Mr. Saunders. There’s a new chaise lounge design I need your thoughts on. She followed that up with a little winky emoji.
Fuck yes, I liked where this was heading. I tucked my phone away as Alice started confirming the date and time for the next board meeting.
“Sounds like we’re just about done here,” I said. “Unless anyone has any action items that we missed?” I looked around the table. I didn’t expect there to be any follow-up when things were going this well. Sales were clearly coasting along, there hadn’t been any major supply chain issues, we had exciting new marketing plans in the works, and everything was on track for the trade show. Heads shook as people started packing up, then to my utter horror, my mother stood and cleared her throat.
“I’d like to launch a challenge for leadership.”
“Excuse me?” I said, certain I’d heard her wrong. What the absolute fuck was she thinking? The board members glanced side to side, shocked. Even my father had a hard time hiding his surprise.
“I am putting forth a motion to remove Trent Saunders as CEO,” she repeated, looking around at the table.
“Is this a joke?” I asked.
“No.” She looked at me, shaking her head with that look of martyred disapproval she’d honed on my father for so many years, like I was the screwup that only she was saintly enough to forgive. “It has come to my attention recently that Trent is ill-suited to the role of CEO at this time.”
“What are you talking about?” I snarled.
Alice gaped, her fingers flying across her keyboard. I couldn’t wait to relive these minutes at the next meeting.
“Trent is currently under an enormous amount of stress. His grandmother, Deana Saunders, is very ill. The prognosis is poor, and, understandably, Trent’s priorities have shifted away from the company to focus on her care.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I growled, a white-hot rage flashing inside me. She had no business talking about Dee or her diagnosis. What the hell did she know about how I was handling that?
“Further to that,” my mother continued, “he continues to experience personal stresses with his younger brother, Jimmy.”
Now she’d crossed a line. Fuck her for talking about Jimmy like he wasn’t her son.
“Not to mention the sourcing and supply chain issues the new line has been experiencing,” she said, consulting the papers she had brought with her before giving very specific information about minor issues we’d had with switching over to new, more sustainable suppliers. “We all know sustainable practices don’t come cheap, and perhaps Trent has bitten off more than he can chew.”
How did she know about the supply chain issues? They were small enough that they hadn’t even made a blip on the CFO’s report. Only a handful of people even knew they’d been a problem at all. I shook my head, completely blind-sided as she continued to rhyme off the reasons I should be forced to step down. How the hell had she gotten all of this information? Had she been spying on me?
“As you can see,” she concluded, addressing the board. “All the issues compounded are distracting him from the company and from getting the job done. None of this is a personal reflection on you, of course, Trent. Anyone would struggle.”
I looked around at the board, their faces like stone. I had no idea what they were thinking, but the whole conversation made me sick to my stomach. Who the fuck did my mother think she was?
I cleared my throat, taking command of the floor. If she thought she could steal my company away from me with this fake sympathy she was spewing like she was doing me a favor, she had another thing coming.
“As many of you already know,” I said, rising to my feet, “I took command of Saunders Furniture five years ago at a time when we were in a headlong crisis. Sales had cratered, customer satisfaction was at an all-time low, and internal morale was so poor that our turnover rate was three times our usual target. I don’t believe there has ever been a time in our company’s history when it was more stressful to be CEO. Given our performance in the years since then, under my leadership, I believe it’s clear that stress doesn’t keep me from doing my job, and doing it well. Even in the face of the more recent stressors, we’ve continued to thrive with our established lines while growing in new and exciting directions.” I stared both my parents down, just in case my father had any ridiculous ideas of his own. “So, clearly, I’m up for the job in a way you weren’t.”
My mother’s face soured at my words.
“Maybe you’ve already forgotten,” I said, tasting bile on my tongue. “But when you had personal problems, you almost imploded this company. I’m better than that. Saunders Furniture will not fail with me in charge.”
“It was your father that almost imploded the company!” my mother snapped.
My father chuckled like he was embarrassed for her. “Leave me out of this, Lara.”
“Shut up, Conrad!”
“Here we go,” one of the board members muttered. I sighed. My mother’s temper had turned her into a loose cannon ever since the divorce. I couldn’t really blame her for having a short fuse after all my father put her through, but by losing her temper here, in this moment, she also lost any credibility she had when it came to swaying the board.
“Shall we put your motion to a vote, Mother?” I said, a wave of calm washing over me. There was no reality where the board would vote to plunge Saunders back into that chaos. “All in favor of removing me as CEO?”
I looked around at the familiar faces of the board members. No one moved a muscle.
“All in favor of me remaining in my current position?”
Hands shot up around the table. The vote was unanimous. “Excellent. Now that that matter has been put to bed, shall we call an end to the meeting?”
The board nodded, climbing to their feet, gathering their things. My mother stayed in her seat, vibrating with rage. The second the last board member cleared the table, I cornered her.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I demanded. “What did you really think you’d get out of a stunt like that?”
“You took this company away from me,” she snapped, still bitter after all this time. “You and your grandmother.”
“Leave Dee out of this,” I spat out.
“Do you know what I had to put up with all those years just so I could hold on to my work?” she said.
It was all I could do not to roll my eyes. Of course I knew—it was all she ever talked about. Work was the only thing she had ever given a damn about. Maybe there was a time when she’d cared about my father too, but I’d certainly never witnessed it. Her disgust over the affairs had made her withdraw from him more and more over the years, all while she threw herself even harder into her work. To hell with anything else, including her own sons. To hell, even, with the fact that by the end, she was actively bad for the company, hurting productivity as she feuded with my father and forced the whole staff to be stuck in the middle.
Even now, all that mattered to her was reclaiming the power and authority she used to have, and she didn’t care who she had to hurt along the way. I knew Natasha wanted me to resolve things with my parents, but there was no way we were ever going to be one big happy family.
“You think I wanted this?” I hissed. “I had much better things to do with my life than clean up after you and Dad.”
“You had no business getting involved.”
“ I’m the only reason there’s anything left of the business,” I said. “Or do you not remember how you and Dad tried to run it into the ground?”
“Saunders was all I had left after everything. But now it’s gone too.”
“Last I checked you have two sons. But, of course, neither one of us counts compared to your work.”
“Don’t give me that sniveling act,” she said, crossing her arms. “You’re not a child anymore, Trent.”
“You’re damn right about that. I’m a grown man, and I understand the world well enough to see you for what you are.”
“And what’s that?” she sneered.
“A failure,” I shot back. “You gave up everything for your work, and you were never truly a success, even with that. How could you be when you brought no soul to it at all? You were never interested in the actual creative process. That’s why this place stagnated under your leadership.”
She scoffed. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I do. Because I’ve got a great designer on board now, and I’ve seen the vibrancy she brings to everything she touches. She’s going to help shift the face of Saunders, and she’ll do it because she genuinely enjoys the act of creating. It’s inspiring. You never had anything like that.”
“Oh, you mean Natasha?”
Some instinct in me triggered at the smug tone in her voice. That tone never meant good things.
“That’s your new little designer, isn’t it?” my mom pressed. “Yes, we’ve met. Nice girl. Well…maybe not nice. But smart , definitely. A real go-getter. Just look at all the information she was able to get for me. About Dee. And Jimmy. And the issues you’ve had with the new line.”
What? All the information she’d just tried to use against me had come from Natasha? That wasn’t possible. There was no way Natasha would have spoken to her without telling me first. “You’re lying.”
“Am I? No…I don’t think so.” A hideous smile curled across her face. “Even your oh-so-special Natasha knows the only thing that matters is the bottom line. All I had to do was dangle a little bit of money, and she couldn’t wait to share all the details.”
My heart dropped into my stomach.
“Maybe it’s time you start thinking about the kinds of people you trust,” she said. “Take it from me. People love to pick you apart when you’re sitting at the top.”
No. Natasha wouldn’t have accepted money for something like that. My mother was just trying to hurt me.
But…Natasha did need money to cover her expenses if she wanted to really devote herself to her own furniture business. It might not be as shallow a motive as a date with a football star or a spokesmodel contract—but one way or another, everyone had their price, didn’t they? Everyone went into a relationship with an idea of what they wanted out of it. Maybe I’d been fooled once again, tricked into thinking I’d finally found someone who might just want me.
My mother smirked at the look on my face. “You’re out of your depth here, Trent.” She stormed off, leaving me standing there, a sick feeling swirling in my chest.
I didn’t want to believe Natasha would sell me out. But all those details my mom brought up in the meeting had to have come from somewhere. And what other explanation was there?