Page 138 of Grumpy Boss of the Year

"Sir, Brigade stock has crashed."

"What?"

"A whistleblower came out and said that the manufacturing plants were employing children and?—

"But that’s not true."

"It's not true now, sir, but it may have been before you purchased the company."

"What? What are you talking about? Fillmore told me. I visited the factories. I?—"

"Sir, I've got our best men investigating, but I'm just telling you what I know as fact right now. It's in the news all over Europe and in New York, and it's tanked. All that money is gone."

"What do you mean, all that money is gone?"

"The 500 million that you have invested in shares in Brigade are worthless right now. There's been an international boycott of the company, and several MPs are calling for an investigation. I've heard that even the president of the United States of America is going to have a press conference."

"What? You're kidding me!"

"I don't know if that's true, sir, but it's a big deal. Kids as young as five years old were working twelve hours a day in the factories, and I mean, there are a lot of big companies that have been purchasing those products to sell."

"Fuck it! Okay, so what do we do?

"We need to put out a statement right away. I'm speaking to legal right now. I have Max, Remington, and Kingston going through the contracts that were signed. We have our public relations team assembling something. As soon as I have something, I'm gonna send it to you for the okay, and then we'll send it out to the papers and TV stations.

"We're gonna have to get ahead of this, sir. We're gonna have to get you on TV, speaking to different investigative journalists."

"Fuck my life. What is going on? How did we not catch this before?"

"You called it out earlier, sir, when you said Fillmore seemed dishonest."

"I knew that son of a bitch was lying about something. This is the worst possible timing. You know I'm about to be introduced to Elisabetta as her fiancé."

"I mean, I know, sir, but?—"

"But this is just not?—"

"Sir, with this 500 million gone and the 300 million that you've wired to Elisabetta's dad, if he reneges on the deal…" She pauses. "Well, it's not looking good."

"Fuck. Okay, so what you're telling me is I need to get him to sign those contracts today."

"Yes, sir. You're gonna need to get him to sign those contracts, and we're gonna need to push forward with the hotel chains immediately. We also need to get ahead of Brigade and everything else that's going on there."

"I mean, my stake cannot be worth nothing. It has to be?—"

"Sir, its worth is as good as nothing unless we can turn this around."

"I understand," I say."Thank you for letting me know."

“I know that you're going to become officially engaged to Elisabetta today, and I didn't want to disturb you, but?—"

"It's fine, Lucinda. I appreciate that you waited and that you've got things in motion for me. You are definitely the best assistant I've ever had."

"Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. About the other thing, sir."

"What other thing? What are you talking about?"

"About, you know."

---