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It had been a long day, and I was about ready to get back on my plane and head back home.
Mr. Chipper had asked me to join him for breakfast early that morning, and while my common sense told me not to do it, I accepted.
“I apologize for the way I ambushed you last night,” he told me when we’d sat down. “It’s not like me to track down those I’ve invested with in that way, but with you being the biggest client I have, I’m sure you can appreciate my desire to have some answers.”
“I can appreciate the businessman in you wanting to know what’s going on,” I told him. “But what I don’t appreciate in the slightest is that you tracked me down here in Colorado when you knew there was an incident with someone I was investing in.”
“Sure,” he said. “But I’m hoping you can appreciate where I’m coming from here. You came all the way out here because you wanted to make sure your money was safe, and I’m doing the same. You are the largest investment I have, along with the other men who were here last night. I know we’re just investors to you, but to us, we’re friends. We’re in this together.”
“At the risk of sounding rude,” I said, “I don’t want to make friends with those who invest in my company. I find it best to remain on friendly terms, but things get messy when you start to incorporate more than that.”
“Of course, and I didn’t come here to make friends or enemies of you,” he said. “I was merely coming here with the intent of making sure we were all on the same page.”
“So, you brought everyone?” I pressed. “You wanted to make sure you and I were on the same page, but you brought everyone with you? As though you weren’t able to send them a text message after the fact and let them know that things were fine?”
“Well, like I said, we are friends,” Mr. Chipper said. “And when things went down the other week with the police and your ex, we were in touch with each other. You aren’t our only investment, I’ll have you know, so don’t feel like we were all sitting around watching you. It was just when things were taking turns the way they were all over the news, we felt it was time to act.”
I rolled my eyes. He wasn’t making anything better by any means, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with him. I wasn’t happy with the fact he was here, and I hated that he had brought his friends along with him. But I also didn’t know how to get it through his head that I wasn’t happy. I didn’t know if hewas trying to smooth things over with me now or what he was attempting to do.
All I wanted was to fix things with Cassie and move on with my life from there.
“So why did you want to have breakfast with me this morning?” I asked, getting right down to the point. “What exactly was your plan here?”
“I just wanted to touch base with you,” he said. “I wanted to get a feel for what your vision is moving forward.”
“With what?” I asked.
“The company,” he said. “It’s not a secret that with the publicity you have endured over the past couple weeks, we have taken a hit with the business. People are a little skeptical with how things went down with your ex, and as you can imagine, there are always going to be the politics that go with it.”
“I don’t care what people have to say,” I replied. “No one else was there, and it’s not up to anyone else how I live my life. I did what was best for my daughter, and as I said last night, I’m not going to put anything above her.”
“And no one is asking you to do that,” Mr. Chipper said. “All I’m asking you right now is what your plan is to control the damage that has been done and how you’re going to recover.”
“Okay, then I’ll lay it down straight,” I said, thoroughly tired of the way he was interrogating me. “I have no idea.”
“You don’t?” he asked.
“No, I don’t,” I said. “I don’t know how I’m going to proceed with you or with any of the other investors. All I know is that I have to take care of things that are going on in my personal life, and that is a priority to me.”
“Not the way to handle business, my boy,” Mr. Chipper said.
I shrugged. “As I already said. You are free to make your own decisions, and if you choose to pull out, so be it. I’ll buy you outof the company if you want. For your own ease of mind, I suggest that’s what we do, in fact.”
“You realize the amount of financial security you will be losing if you do that, right?” he asked.
“You realize how much I don’t care?” I shot back.
“Well, I never,” he stammered. It was clear to me he was flustered, but I didn’t care. I had the upper hand. It was my company, after all. And even though I’d worked hard to have the life I currently lived, that didn’t change the fact that to me, Lucy and Cassie were the most important things. I had built my own empire, sure, but at the end of the day, it was only money.
I wanted to have a life I could share with people I loved. I wasn’t wrapped up in the money or the image any longer.
“Here,” I said, pulling out my checkbook and scrawling out the sum. “Now, you don’t have to worry about it any longer.”
Flustered, he took the paper from me. “You are making a mistake.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take,” I said. “I’ve made my decision.”
Without another word, he got up and left, and I had to bite my tongue about who was picking up the tab. Not that it was a big deal for me to pay for breakfast, but his assumption I would was just about enough to push me over the edge. The only thing that made me keep my cool was the fact that he was walking away from me once and for all. I didn’t have to worry about him again.
