Unto the Third and Fourth Generation

“No, that can’t be true. There has to be some kind of mistake.”

It was inconceivable to Heather. In all the years that she had been on this Earth, her uncle Daniel had always stuck by her father. They were two sides of the same coin, presenting different personalities and yet inseparable. While her father was passionate and charismatic, easily drawing people to his leadership, her uncle was calculating and preferred to work behind the scenes, gaining respect for his hard work ethic. Yet, as different as they were, they had always supported each other, always had each other’s back, kept the other in line. There was no way, in Heather’s mind, that it was possible for her uncle to be part of a coup against her father.

“I understand that it’s shocking, but it is true,” her mother insisted. “I admit, it’s very unlike Daniel. Even when your father and I divorced, Daniel didn’t disown me. He was one of the few sources of comfort and friendship that I had, especially within the company where I was still seen as a gold-digger that used my influence over Robert to get my position on the board.” Robert shot her a glance with raised eyebrows. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. He wasn’t consoling me in that way. He just said he could understand how difficult it must have been with your lifestyle.”

“Then it must be ****, or extortion. Something they’ve got on him to make him turn on us like this,” Heather grasped at any reason she could to disprove her mother’s story. “Hell, even a god-damn demonic possession would make more sense than uncle Daniel actively, willingly, taking part in a corporate coup. He just wouldn’t do something like that.”

“Well, that’s not exactly true either,” Brooke noted, leaning back against the kitchen counter. “It was before your time, though I’m sure you’ve heard about it, but your father and Daniel did oust your grandfather from the company in a similar fashion.”

“But that was different, wasn’t it?” Heather’s eyes darted from one parent to the other. “Grandpa had made a lot of bad deals that nearly bankrupted the company. If it wasn’t for Dad and uncle Daniel, there wouldn’t be a company today. Maybe making Zack his stand-in backfired, but the company is still making money, isn’t it?”

“It’s not just about profits. Your grandfather…it wasn’t malevolent, but he can be a bad combination of lazy and stubborn. He was more concerned about keeping the company afloat to finance his own life, rather than building properties that would invigorate the town or help people. Rather than negotiate or look for better opportunities, he made quick and simple deals with the Smiths and Wynwicks,” Robert explained, folding his arms across his chest as his lips curled into an **** frown, the topic of discussion bringing him no pleasure. “One or two deals isn’t a major problem, but this is how it was for many years, with the Smiths and Wynwicks becoming increasingly wise to our father’s negligence and apathy. They began proposing deals that gave them increasing amounts of influence and greater shares from profits of the investment, while our company took the brunt of the development and publicity.”

“Okay, but wouldn’t he notice that they were making more money? Or that the projects were costing him more?” Heather asked, her brow furrowed, trying to understand how her grandfather couldn’t have noticed something that seemed fairly obvious to her.

“Perhaps, if he cared enough to look. But he just didn’t have the business mind that my grandfather had, and you have to understand, he was still making money off the deals. They were still making him rich, it’s just that it was making the Smith and the Wynwicks richer. Thus, he never questioned it,” he explained, the whole situation seeming surreal, even though he’d lived through it. He imagined Heather telling her own children about the current situation someday, and wondered if it would feel surreal to her too. “But other problems began to arise. There were other deals he’d made, new suppliers and contractors he’d brought in, using cheap materials and even cheaper labor to get the job done. Inevitably, there was an accident. No one died or anything, but there were several injuries and the company was sued. Of course, because the investments heavily favored the Smiths and Wynwicks, it was Ravers Enterprises that took the heat. That was when the board had enough and wanted him gone, but he still had a majority share. Daniel and I had tried to reason with him previously, but he refused to admit anything was even wrong. So, we were **** to work with the board to push him out.”

“But at least you and Daniel tried talking to Grampa first,” Heather remarked, pacing the length of the kitchen counter. “But Daniel hasn’t mentioned anything to you at all, has he?” Her father shook his head. “And the only person Daniel seems to talk to these days is…” Heather stopped abruptly, her eyes widening. “Oh, that rat bastard, he’s in on it, isn’t he?”

“Heather?” Brooke asked, thoroughly lost by her daughter’s train of thought now. “What are you talking about? Who’s in on it?”

“Zack! Zack Bishop. Daniel has been talking to him since we put him in charge.” Heather shook her head. “But, no…Zack wouldn’t do something like this either.”

“Zack?” Brooke looked between her daughter and her ex-husband, still confused. “What’s he got to do with any of this?”

“Heather said that she noticed them talking recently, including the night of the charity gala after I appointed Zack as the interim CEO,” Robert elaborated briefly, before turning to his daughter “When I found Daniel earlier at the office, I asked him why he was spending so much time with Zack, and he told me he was just getting him acclimated to the company. Obviously, that was a lie, but I believed him at the time.”

“Maybe he was upset, when he thought that you were his father and made a deal with Daniel and the board to get back at you. If Daniel talked to him as early as that night then the plot must already have been in motion,” Brooke deduced, taking in all the new information with a hard, concentrated look on her face. “It certainly would have been necessary to bring him on board rather than risk leaking the coup back to you.”

“It’s my fault,” Heather growled with another vigorous shake of her head. “I’m the one who suggested making Zack the CEO. If Dad was in charge, they never would have gotten away with this.”

“Your idea? You didn’t mention that when you asked me to support his nomination,” Brooke narrowed her eyes at her ex-husband. “In fact, I had to find out from Daniel that the real reason was for you to cover up some scandal.”

“It doesn’t matter now,” Robert insisted. Telling his ex-wife, the mother of their daughter, that he’d been caught, on video receiving a blowjob from said daughter was just not an option. “It’s no longer a problem.”

Beside her parents, Heather remained stony faced. She wasn’t going to tell her mother about the video either, but she was also hiding certain truths from her father. Gavin had been incapacitated when she was at the cabin earlier, so she still had no confirmation whether he’d been able to get Grace to erase the video completely. A shiver ran down her spine, imagining the trouble that Shawn could cause if he was in possession of that video.

“It is still a problem,” Brooke snapped. “It’s the whole reason any of this is happening. You pushed too hard to get that kid approved; you showed the board just how much control you still have. They were content to let you have the run of the company, to follow your lead, not just because you were smart and capable and a damn sight better than your father, but also because they considered themselves to be the checks and balances to your power. You made it abundantly clear that’s not the case, Robert, and they didn’t like it. I can’t say I blame them, honestly, considering the secrets you’ve kept from even me and Daniel. Maybe he thinks you’ve gone too far as well.”

“What’s done is done,” Robert said firmly, staring down his ex-wife. “There’s no point arguing about it anymore.”

Between them Heather stood, feeling like a child again. It had been a long time since she’d heard her parents argue like this, or heard her mother lay into her father so intensely. Though the divorce had been amicable, for years as she grew up, they had disagreed about quite how to parent her. Her mother thought that her father was too lenient and open with her, her father insisted her mother just didn’t want her to turn out like him. Usually though they would have come to some agreement or compromise, rarely staying angry for long. Her father never put his foot down like he had just now, effectively ending any further discussion. Though, knowing the reason, Heather understood why this time was different.

“So, uh, what do we do now?” Heather asked through the bitter tension. “How are we going to get the company back?”

“I don’t know if we can. The only way will be if we can get the board to reinstate me, which won’t be easy if they're as pissed as your mother claims,” Robert said as he reached into his pocket and fished out his phone. “First things first though, is to talk to Daniel and find out what’s really going on.”

“Hmmm, good idea. Oh…” she searched for her own phone as another thought came to her suddenly. “I should postpone the party I was going to have at the cabin tomorrow.”

“You don’t have to do that. This is your last Spring Break before college. You should be enjoying yourself,” Robert looked up at her, while still dialing Daniel’s number from memory. “Besides, there really might not be much we can do straight away.”

“No, I want to be here,” Heather was insistent. “I won’t be able to have fun if I’m worried about what’s going on here.”

Relenting, Robert moved out of the kitchen to another room, as he heard the ringtone of his phone connecting to his brother’s phone. Heather left too, through another door, to compose a message to all of her friends, leaving her mother alone in the kitchen to contemplate everything that had just happened. There were many more secrets and lies than she’d realized when she came to Ravers Manor tonight, and ones that were still being kept from her. And worse, Heather seemed to be complicit in all of the deceit and manipulation.

Yet, Brooke still trusted Robert. His one weakness was their daughter, that much was true, but else wise she had always admired his resiliency and incorruptible nature. But, she feared, this was one blow that he may not be able to bounce back from. The board and his own brother had screwed him good. There really may be no getting the company ‘back’ as Heather hoped.