Page 48 of Catching a Con Man

Xavier’s eyes widened when I opened up the slides on profitability that he had kept hidden from me. I thought I saw a couple of people glance at him across the table, but I couldn’t be sure if they were wavering or worried about being caught out.

When I’d finished, the room went silent.

“So, shall we take it to a vote?” asked one lady at the back of the room. Her husband had been one of the first, and most loyal members of Electro before his subsequent retirement and passing, and though she only held a nominal amount of shares, every percentage would help.

“I vote aye,” I started. “Hands for aye?”

Holding thirty percent meant I was already holding a lot of the cards. But Xavier held almost as much from years of rewards, and I watched as a few meagre hands joined me in my motion. The secretary in the corner typed away as she added up the totals by share value.

“And all those against?” I asked. Xavier’s hand went up, and he had at least the good grace to look guilty. A few more hands went up.

“And abstentions?” One hand went up, someone who owned something like one percent of the company.Great. By my own reckoning, we were at about forty-four percent in favour, forty-five against. One abstention and my father’s big fat ten percent chunk had sunk me.

“Motion does not…” started Xavier, but tailed off when someone coughed in the doorway.

All eyes went to the darkly silhouetted figure, and I just about avoided rolling my eyes. Bennett was dressed, as usual, in all black. “No one counted my vote,” he said. “Put my hand up and everything. But you were all too busy waiting for my wonderful brother’s reaction to your betrayal that you didn’t even look this way.”

“Can you even vote?” asked a shareholder. Bennett grinned as he sauntered over to the family chair. He so rarely grinned that it really freaked me out that he was.

“I’m CFO of Crane. I have the authority to vote in my father’s stead when he can’t.”

Fuck.My father had sent him to really screw us over. “Get it over with, Bennett,” I muttered. Xavier smiled, but tried to cover it with one hand.

“See, there’s one thing I hold above all else,” said Bennett. “Family. It’s always been at the core of my father’s philosophy. Our family unity is our wealth. So imagine how I felt when I realised that my big brother had left my father cowering in his chair. Imagine how I felt when Addison Crane Junior tore a hole in my parents’ trust, and had my little brother move out for the very first time just to get away from us.”

I wanted to put my head in my hands but stood still. I would not show weakness. Bennett continued. “Imagine my surprise, when after a conversation with my mother, it transpired that it wasn’t Junior here who had callously betrayed family, but my father. When he needed my father most, both as a businessman and a parent, he’d failed on both fronts. And I’m here to redress my father’s failure. I vote in favour of the motion.”

There was no explosion, no wringing of hair. No fanfare. Because all this had been a fairly regular vote at another FTSE 100 company. But I wanted to rip my brother out of his chair and give him the biggest hug of his life. Not that Bennettdidhugging.

“Right. Meeting adjourned,” I said. “Motion passes. No further business.”

The room emptied, leaving Xavier, Bennett and I. Xavier and Bennett stood at the same time, and Xavier moved to leave when Bennett grabbed his arm. “I’ve heard you were planning on ejecting my brother from this company today,” he said. “I don’t like that. You can disagree, you can vote, you can argue. But disloyalty really boils my piss. I’d suggest you come up with a fair price to sell back your shares before I call a vote to remove your decision-making powers.”

Xavier nodded, and with the briefest of glances back at me, left the room.

I held my arms out for a hug, but as predicted, Bennett shook his head. “Not for me, brother. I know it was the right thing to do, but…betraying Dad’s wishes didn’t sit right with me.”

“Well…thank you,” I said. “Really. I don’t know how to thank you enough.”

“Thank me by forgiving the old man when he comes crawling back on his hands and knees. Because he will. It’ll just take time.”

“What’s he gonna do when he finds out you’ve done this?” I asked.

“Probably punish me horribly,” Bennett sighed. “But it needed to be done. You and Tyler…you justwork. I could see it over dinner, and if our father is too blinded by pride to see a good thing when it slaps him in the face, then he’s an idiot.”

“Thanks, B.”

Bennett rested one hand on my shoulder briefly, the closest thing I’d get to a hug from him any time soon. Then he was stepping out of the conference room, walking through the foyer, and was in the lift before anyone could stop him to talk. It would take some time before he could forgive himself for betraying our father. I knew that. And my father would be furious when he found out. But perhaps Bennett was ready to step out from Addison Crane Senior’s long shadow.

I closed the conference room door behind me and sauntered over to Tyler’s office. Tyler looked up from the computer. “C’mon, let’s go home and fuck it out,” he said. “It can’t be all bad…”

“Oh, ye of little faith,” I said. Tyler’s eyes widened, and I could feel the corners of my mouth curling up into a grin. I closed the door behind me and slid the lock closed. “So you were going to bend over that desk for me, right?”

“Nope.” Tyler popped his lips on the P. He stood up and gestured to his office chair. “Sit down, Mr Crane. Let me show you just how well I canride.”

That was a plan I could get behind. Or underneath, as it were.

Epilogue - Ade

---