Chapter Five #2
Tony shook his head, looking grim as he closed the door to Nico’s huge corner office, with floor-to-ceiling views of the city on two sides.
‘This isn’t going away, boss. Not easily, anyway.
’ He frowned unhappily as he took out his phone and started scrolling.
‘It’s about the takeover of that tech company. It’s not going well.’
‘I thought it went very well,’ Nico replied in a deliberately mild voice. At least it had on the surface, a textbook case of how to take over a company in three days with very little damage. The fact that he felt very unsettled in his own mind about it all was another matter entirely.
‘Buying out the shareholders did,’ Tony confirmed, ‘But there’s been pushback, and it’s not pretty. One of the employees did something on social media, and two hours in it’s already going seriously viral.’
Nico frowned as he held out his hand. ‘Show me.’
Tony scrolled on his phone for a few more seconds before wordlessly handing Nico the device.
Nico glanced down dispassionately at the video of a tearful woman sitting at an office cubicle, shredding a tissue as she detailed how she’d lost her job and had to clear her desk in ten minutes, a security guard menacingly standing over her.
She was a single mother with a disabled son, she wept, and she had no idea how she was going to survive without her job.
He handed it back to Tony without watching the whole thing. ‘So? One post.’ He shrugged. ‘People lose their jobs all the time and any business venture of this kind attracts this sort of notice. It’s par for the course.’
‘Yes,’ Tony replied, ‘But this post has racked up six hundred thousand views in just two hours, and there’s more every minute.’
Nico’s frown deepened. That, he had to acknowledge, was a lot of views. ‘How?’
‘Some celeb reposted it, apparently.’ Tony shrugged in dismissal.
‘Who knows how these things happen? The point is, it’s now blowing up.
I’ve already been contacted by four media outlets.
And it’s not just the media,’ he continued darkly.
‘Your front-facing interests are already suffering. The Galletti Hotel in Los Angeles has already had a raft of cancellations, with guests citing this as the reason.’
‘What?’ Nico could hardly believe it. He understood a little online faux-outrage, but people actually cancelling reservations because of one woman crying into her camera?
‘All because of this?’ he demanded. ‘Why do people care so much about a simple takeover? They happen all the time. Usually, they barely make it past being buried in the business pages.’
Tony pressed his lips together. ‘I suppose people want to know why a billionaire tycoon like Nico Galletti has been ruthlessly targeting such a relatively small company that helps at-risk people…and why he felt the need to fire everyone who worked there.’ Judging from his head of PR’s tone, it seemed as if Tony was wondering the same thing.
‘These news stories last a second,’ Nico dismissed impatiently, ignoring Tony’s spin on reality. ‘You just wait them out…’ He stopped, frowning as Tony’s words trickled through his mind. ‘Wait, what do you mean, “at-risk people”?’
‘The tech company,’ he explained. ‘Infinite Innovations. All their inventions are—or rather, were—to help differently abled and other at-risk people. Destroying it for no apparent reason is not a good look, especially in this day and age, when a company’s ethical profile is so crucial.’
‘Right.’ Nico turned back to the window, raking his hand through his hair.
Somehow, when researching the solvency of Infinite Innovations, he had missed the part about the inventions being aimed at anyone, especially people with special needs.
All he’d cared about was that it was run by a Woodward, and what that meant for his bottom line.
He blew out a breath, his gaze on the view from the twenty-second floor, but his mind’s eye picturing Ashley: that surprisingly stubborn tilt of her chin; the emerald flash of her eyes; the tremble of her lips as she’d tried desperately to hold it together when he’d told her he was destroying her company…
And then he thought about his brother, his mother’s words ringing through his mind.
This is your fault, Nico. If you’d been here, Roberto wouldn’t have…
He clamped down hard on that train of thought as he swivelled back to face Tony. ‘So, considering the situation,’ he asked, ‘What do you advise I do?’
‘Damage control, stat,’ the other man replied immediately.
‘Be seen in public with the tech company’s CEO.
Make a statement about being committed to preserving jobs.
Promise to educate yourself about the issues that have been raised.
Donate a shedload of money to significant causes.
And then, maybe—and only maybe—you might limit the damage. ’
Nico shook his head slowly, more amazed than alarmed. He could weather a few cancellations and some negative press, and he knew damage control wasn’t as important to him as it was to Tony. But if he’d done something he would regret…for several reasons…
‘You really think it’s that bad?’ he asked.
In reply, Tony held up his phone. ‘Over a hundred thousand views in the last fifteen minutes. Yes, it’s that bad.’
Half an hour later, Nico was back by the window, staring blindly out at the city.
He’d spent most of that time scrolling on his phone to discover more information about Infinite Innovations.
Just a few minutes had been enough to make his stomach seethe with guilt and regret.
Of all the companies he could have chosen to destroy, Ashley Woodward’s might have been the worst, both for public and personal reasons.
He’d read about the robotic toothbrush that those with paralysis or dementia could use to help brush their teeth and the communication device the company was helping to market to help people with speech difficulties.
He’d learned about the bracelet that monitored brainwaves and could warn people they were having seizures as well as transmit messages to carers; and about an all-terrain wheelchair that was impossible to tip, and the prosthetic arm that could restore a sense of touch.
All of the technology had been invented awhile ago, but Infinite Innovations was helping to bring it to a wider, more accessible market.
He’d read an interview with Ashley in which she’d explained how hard it was to get investors, because people with disabilities were so often at the bottom of the list, but that these were inventions that would truly change the world.
He’d watched a snippet of a video in which she’d spoken passionately about needing to champion these causes, and how every single one of her employees had been hired based on their connection to someone who had complex needs.
Reading it all had made him realise what a huge mistake he’d made.
And why Ashley Woodward must truly think he was a monster.
Right then, he felt like a monster. He’d destroyed a company that was, at its heart, perhaps the noblest and most altruistic business endeavour he’d ever heard of.
One, in any other scenario, he would have fought hard to champion.
And, according to the articles he’d read, it had been Ashley Woodward’s brainchild. Her baby.
What did that say about the woman he’d dismissed as not only shallow, but scheming and treacherous? What did it say about him that he had, especially considering his own history?
He felt as if he didn’t know anything any more, and that was a deeply unsettling sensation.
He dealt in certainties. What Chase Woodward had done to him, with the help of his daughter, had affected every choice he’d made in the sixteen years since it happened.
But, no matter how noble she might seem, he still couldn’t trust her.
He wouldn’t, and that was a choice too, because he’d learned the hardest way possible how much trusting could hurt.
He would not let himself be fooled twice.
He refused to be that na?ve or hopeful with anyone ever again, the way he had once been, and especially not with a Woodward.
But Nico acknowledged with a grimace that he still needed to talk to Ashley…and find a way out of this mess.