That number hit Jayda hard. “Does your father know the state your company is in?"
Another smart question, Harrison thought. “No, he doesn’t. We haven’t released our last quarter numbers yet. We have another month to go before that’s required. But it will fall far short of expectations, which will be a major blow. But when release time arrives and if my father hasn’t publicly agreed to leave Bainbridge Oil to me, then my stock will tank so significantly that there will be no way for us to recover. I’ll be out of business, or at least at the mercy of the courts, within very little time after that.”
Jayda sat there. She could feel his anguish, and could see the stress in his eyes. But he could tell she was concerned.
“Can I say something honestly?”
Her response was exactly what he wanted from her. “Please.”
Jayda didn’t know how he was going to take it, but she said it anyway. “Why would your father leave his company to you when you can’t even manage your own company?”
“Ouch,” he said with a smile. “Now that cut deep.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s how I feel.”
He nodded. “A reasonable feeling.” Then he frowned. “I wish it was mismanagement. Then I could fire myself and hire a better person to take over the reins. But nothing has been mismanaged in my corporation. It’s the nature of the business. Bainbridge Capital Trust, in case you don’t realize, deals primarily in venture capitalism. Ever hear of that?”
“That’s like when you prey on small businesses in trouble and take them over?” she asked him.
He smiled, but nodded. “I wouldn’t call itpreyingon them, but yes, that’s a part of it. We take over struggling businesses, reinvigorate them, and then sell them at a much higher price.”
“Like people that flip houses.”
“Something like that, yes. But we also invest in startups that could go big, or bust. The problem we’ve run into is the recession. We purchased the businesses at a low price, yes. But now that the recession is so widespread, hitting almost all sectors, but especially the business sector, we find ourselves with businesses that are worth even less than we paid for them. And almost all of the startups we’ve invested in are bust. Now we have an enormous surplus of businesses and nowhere to unload them. At least not at a profit. Which means we are running deep in the red.”
“But y’all didn’t see it coming?” Jayda asked.
“The forecast was for a minor recession, and we priced every business we purchased with that forecast in mind plus or minus a couple deviations from that forecast. But the forecast was wrong. Dead wrong. The recession is far deeper than most analysts predicted. We aren’t the only ones in my line of work struggling. We’re all stuck with bad investments we can’t unload. And when you consider how big BCT is, that’s a load to unload.”
Jayda understood. She looked at him. “But why would you taking over Bainbridge Oil help your company?”
“Because it will show that my father has complete confidence in my ability to manage it. Which will lift my profile, which will in turn lift my company. Yes, we will run in the red for a few cycles, but the markets will know that we will come out of those cycles and I will have the capital to take the hit should all remain the same, or the recession deepens. Both companies will succeed if I take over Bainbridge Oil.”
“But if your brother takes over?”
“Then I’m doomed, to be blunt with you. There’s no way I can recover. I’ll be liquidating assets just to stay afloat. Which is a fancy word for bankruptcy.”
“Companies have come back from bankruptcy.”
“Not my kind of company. It involves risk at its core. If the risk doesn’t pan out within an allotted time frame, then all I have is a lot of dead debt. That’s why immediate action will be necessary.”
“You’ll be broke then?” she asked.
Harrison stared at her. Broke was a relative term. She might have meant penniless, which would be absurd. He would still be a very rich man. But that was his business. “Something like that,” he said to her.
“And if your company goes under, I’ll be out of a job,” she said.
He liked the practical way she was looking at the situation. “Yes. That’s the truth.”
Jayda exhaled and frowned at the same time. “This is a lot,” she said. “If I pretend to be your fiancée, I’ll feel like a fraud.”
“Yes, you might feel that way. Or you’ll be helping both of us out of a jam,” said Harrison. “Because once my father turns over his company to me, it’s done. It can’t be undone. And people break off engagements all the time.”
Then he exhaled. “It’s not the ideal situation, no, it’s not. But sometimes the ends do justify the means, Jayda.”
He could tell she still didn’t like it, but she was a sensible girl. “What will I have to do?” she asked him.
“Play the role of my fiancée. We’ll leave New York Thursday afternoon. We’re due at my father’s estate for dinner that same night. At which time I’ll introduce you to him and my brother.”
