Chapter 7: New Alliance
Candy grabbed Neal's arms, shoved him behind her, and put herself protectively in front of him.
"Did you hear what he said? He needs time to think!" cried Candy. She span him so his back was facing the men. "You think, Neal. Let them wait."
Neal looked at her before dropping his eyes.
"Candy," said Neal. He looked he had a lot on his mind. "You should go. I can't provide you... I have a lot of problems and I am... broke." His voice faded.
"So what if you are broke?" Candy said gently. "You don't need to provide for me. I work. I can take care of myself."
He went on. "But that is not how I want to be for you. I am a man. I am supposed to look after you."
Stung, Candy's heart melted. She would die to hear Terry or Todd say that. That was singularly the sweetest intention a man had ever declared to her. Perhaps before it was hidden behind arrogance, now it shone in humility. Suddenly she realized that the engagement had undiscovered sincerity after all.
"Hush, don't think too much," Candy said softly. "You'll pull through. I am sure. In the meantime, if there's anything I can do, tell me. I want to help."
Neal stood there his eyes cast down. Growing impatient by the second, the two men clicked their tongue, exhaled loudly, and stamped their feet with terrible exaggeration. But, holding Neal's hands, Candy stood by him.
After a long minutes, Neal drew a long breath. He decided, before trying harder he shouldn't resign and let Benther lead. His father would be very disappointed if he did. With that Neal raised his face to her. This time, his entire countenance had changed. It had steely determination not fear.
"You already did. I will manage," his voice was firm with finality. "And tell the Cornwells, I'll be fine."
Neal pulled his hands away from hers and with his head held high, he steadily joined the two men. Together, they disappeared into the building. Candy realized that there was nothing more she could do.
oOo
That afternoon, the client meeting was a disaster. The meeting with Benther was even worse. With all kinds of terrible threats, Benther forced Neal to resign which he refused.
At the end of the day, Neal stood in front of his window looking out of his office, watching the place he met Candy. More than ever, he wanted to succeed to show everyone that the Leagan was a company to admire and so he could take care of Candy.
But he couldn't even make his staff get him a finance report! His father would have got it in seconds while it took him already three days and counting. He's the top man in the company but none of his executives listened to him. He had to catch up in order to be respected but he didn't know whom to turn to without his father.
Neal heard a faint knock coming at the door, and saw an old man in a creme suit at the doorway.
"Mr. Neal, I saw your office was still bright so I decided to come," he said hesitatingly. "I'd like to bring up an issues to you. But I can come back tomorrow."
Neal glanced at the clock. 8:23 PM. He wasn't aware that it's already this late.
"You are?"
"Dave. David Botsfort from finance division." Dave motioned forward.
Hopelessly, Neal sank to his seat. Must be another bad news, legal attacks, or complain. It just never ended, all day. Let Dave say it now so it ended quicker.
"On behalf of my colleagues, I'd like to say that we don't believe a bit about the accusation against Mr. Leagan," Dave started in a quiet assured voice.
Neal stared for a moment then made a gesture to a seat.
"We understand that the court freezes our company bank account," said Dave, sitting down. "I and many others had a discussion about it. Should it become necessary, we want to volunteer to have salary freeze [1]."
Neal straightened up at the unexpected development.
"I joined our company when your grandfather was still in charge." Dave smiled warmly. "At that time we were in a much smaller building in outskirt of Chicago."
Neal nodded, listening.
"When I and my new bride bought our first house, the company helped our down payment. When we had babies, when our kids went to college..." Dave beamed and paused. "The company has always been there for me. May I say... how very good it feels to be part of a bigger family. Now, my children have graduated from college. I have paid off my mortgage. My wife and I have enough savings for retirement. So I think it's the right thing to do to step up and volunteer."
Seeing Dave's sincere face made Neal feel so proud of his company. The more he determined to make positive contribution to it.
Dave handed Neal a piece of paper that had a list of names and signatures. "These are us who wish to volunteer. We all are of the old school."
Astounded, Neal read the paper. Many were managers and directors - very important and high ranking personals[2] from various division in the company. There are accountants, human resource, legal, etc. So far, his father only made him attend executive level meetings so he never knew about them.
One division attracted Neal's attention. "Strategic investment in the West Coast? What is this?" Neal asked.
"Mr. Leagan always has a dedicated team who does research on new investment potentials. He was into banking in the West Coast once but last year that division became neglected after he decided to go with Entsy."
Dave seemed to know so many things. Suddenly Neal saw hope, thought of ideas.
"You are... a director of finance," Neal murmured, reading Dave's name that was on the top of the list.
"Yes, Mr. Neal."
Neal relapsed into silence and seemed lost in thought.
Dave stared at his boss' youth complexion and sighed silently. It's not a secret that Mr. Leagen's son just worked for less than four months. Too bad that he had to catch up on so many things in such a wrong time. Being in the company for almost 30 years, Dave had countless of fresh graduates subordinates and had trained countless. He understood how difficult Neal's situation was.
Dave cleared his throat. "Mr. Neal," he couldn't help to add. "I'd like to reiterate that we stand by Mr. Leagan and the company. If there's something we can do, just tell us."
Neal leaned forward in his seat. "So Dave, do you have access to the finance report?"
"Yes, I do," Dave replied promptly.
Neal's heart jumped. That was the biggest breakthrough he ever had. "What about last quarter finance report?"
"Absolutely. Any quarter. Would you want me to get one for you?" Dave asked.
Dave went to fetch the report and came back as quickly as when his father asked someone to pick one. Eagerly Neal read the report. He read and thought and thought of plans and how to execute it until he fell asleep.
At three in the morning Neal awoke on his desk where he had fallen asleep and readily straightened up to catch up with his work. There are five more hours before his staffs came. He had to catch up - fast! He must take control of his staffs and the company.
.o.
For the next few months, Neal did this daily. Reading corporate documents was difficult, human relation and people management were even trickier. But the clock was ticking, he had to race against time. He had to learn quickly on everything.
Also, by contacting people in Dave's list of names, Neal now had access to information from all divisions without having to depend on his executives. Gradually, he knew more people and formed a team which's good and loyal to him.
.
-To be continued-
Thanks for reading.
This story is getting much longer than I originally intended... Thanks for the patience.
Note:
1. these kind of things are common in big companies
2. Managers and especially directors in big corporations are BIG guys. They are under the executives but very important people still.
Company structure, roughly: The executives (CEO, CFO, COO, etc), director, manager, regular staff
.