Page 61 of Faith

To his right sat Michael, his son and Vice President. He only had a few stands of gray in his hair, but he looked to be a little shorter and a bit heavier than his father. While his father wore a Hawaiian shirt—typical on the islands even in business—Michael was dressed in a suit. On the opposite side of the table sat Lana and Sam. Lana was Michael’s younger sister. She wore what looked to be a dress with massive pink plumeria. Her hair was a long waterfall of black, and while she was only one or two years younger than Michael, she looked much younger. Sam was dressed like his grandfather in a Hawaiian shirt. His dark black hair was cut short.

“So, do we have anything to discuss?” Jensen asked.

Robert’s lips twitched. “That’s one thing I like about you, Wulf. Always right to the point.”

“My mother taught me there are times to be direct.”

“Yes. Well, we are definitely interested and want to accept the offer.”

“I feel there is abutin there.”

“We have a few little things we want added to the contract.”

“Okay. These have not been brought up before?”

He shook his head. “We want it in the contract that we keep the name of the resort.”

“Of course, that goes without saying.”

“And the buyout you offer?”

“You say in ten years we can buy back your half of the resort at market value.”

“Yes?”

“We would like it at five years after the agreement. Then a clause to allow us to revisit every five years thereafter.”

“I see no reason why that would be a problem.”

While Jensen and Robert spoke, she watched the reaction of the other family members. Sam and Lana showed no outward reaction. If they disagreed with the contract, or the ideas Robert was putting forth, they weren’t showing it. Michael was another matter. He was stoic, but his jaw kept flexing, telling Nicola that he was grinding his teeth. The others might not like the idea, but Michael seemed to be furious.

Robert and Jensen continued to chat about the contract, and then, Michael proved her right.

“I am raising my objection to this again,” he said, interrupting his father mid-sentence.

From Lana and Sam’s expressions, Michael had committed a huge faux pas. Apparently, interrupting Robert was not considered a good thing to do. From the look on Robert’s face, he was not happy whatsoever.

“We voted, Michael. You even got hold of Aleka to get his vote, and he agreed. You lost four to one.”

Michael slammed his fist on the conference table. “I have a right to run this company to fix the wrongs,” he said, his voice raising louder with each word.

“Fix the wrongs? Michael, we talked about this,” Lana said, glancing at the monitor. “The Wulfs know it, so I might as well say it. We need their money. Otherwise, we’ll have to sell the resort to outsiders.”

“Who the hell are the Wulfs?” he shouted, his face turning red.

“We are outsiders, that is true, but we do not want to own your resort outright. We want to help you.”

“Why?” Michael said.

“My mother has her reasons, and she has not shared them with me. But I do know she researched your family. We are a family-run business, as you are. Your father has taken pains to ensure that all of you have a legacy. My mother admires that. She also doesn’t like the idea of people coming in and taking over your business.”

“That’s it?” he said, his tone telling Nicola he didn’t believe it.

“Our lawyers read over the contract, Dad,” Sam said. “It’s good. It will be good, and we’ll be able to hire a lot of local workers for the hotel and the improvements. It will help the economy.”

He shook his head, but Robert apparently had had enough.

“We voted, you lost.” He turned toward the monitor. “If you can draw up the newest contracts, we will have our lawyers look them over. But, if nothing changes other than those things we talked about, I say you have yourself a deal.”

---