Page 36 of The Heiress

“Some coffee would be great.”

“Good, because I was getting some anyway.” She disappeared, her colorful dress swishing around her legs as she moved through the door. She returned with a tray. Silver carafe, bone white china mugs, cream, sugar, and biscotti. “I like a little treat with my treat but don’t feel obligated to indulge on my account. I’ll just eat yours after you leave.”

“Already using me?” I snatched the biscotti first.

She gasped with fake shock. “I would never.” We poured out our cups and settled in for the meeting. “I know you’ve already been given the basics ad nauseam, so I’ll skip the part where I tell you what you already know.”

“That’s much appreciated.”

“You’re very smart. I’m not even going to pretend you don’t see through all the veils we throw up. Why don’t you tell me what you want to know or are hoping to see in your future and not waste our time.”

“Well,” I said around the biscotti, “none of this was my idea. I came here to meet Georgia and instead I’ve wound up alone or in meetings. If I had my way I’d spend a few days alone with Georgia and then go home, I guess. I don’t have an agenda; I have no designs on getting a job here or whatever.” I stopped talking after that because I could feel the early signs of babbling taking over.

“Hmmm.”

“Hmmm?”

Jasmine leaned back and tucked her hand under her chin. “This makes sense actually.”

Well at least it made sense to someone. I, on the other hand, was still trying to comprehend why a woman who finally had a chance to meet her child was being so distant. “How so?”

She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, her eyes tracking just over my shoulder and pinching a little at the corners. “Mrs. Roark has thrown herself into her work. She has become the company since Mr. Roark’s death. Not that she wasn’t deeply involved before but…” She stopped herself from saying something, then refocused her gaze on me with a tight smile. “Your mother thinks of everything in relation to this company. She eats, sleeps, and breathes it. So on the one hand I think she’s letting you get to know her by having you learn about the company. But on the other hand, my guess is it's a convenient excuse to hide behind.”

Georgia had said something similar, hadn’t she? Maybe I was projecting my parents onto my biological mother and expecting her to behave the same way, as if all mothers worked from the same Rulebook for Mothers. My mom would have dropped everything to spend time with me, get to know me, makeup for the lost years. But that’s how she was about everything that involved her heart. She loved completely and unabashedly. She also had a loving husband and a quiet, normal life.

Georgia Stroman Roark hadn’t been normal a day in her life. She grew up with wealth and luxury. She ran one of the most important companies in the whole world.

“Well,” I drawled, “if my mother is this company, what about it says the most about her?” I wasn’t even sure what I was asking. Did all rich people make things so complicated instead of just saying what they meant?

Probably.

“The first word that comes to mind iscomplicated.Roark Corp is the result of two companies becoming one...sort of.”

That got my attention. “Go on.”

She half-smiled. “You got the pretty version when you arrived. Roark and Stroman combined their many businesses under one umbrella and rebranded as Roark. That’s the pretty version.” Jasmine woke her computer and tapped at the keys. When she turned the monitor so I could also see it, there was a chart displayed with Roark at the top. She pointed to the second row of names. “These are the primary divisions of the company. SMA handles all our large manufacturing with separate divisions for private commercial contracts and military contracts. RTA is the combination of Stroman and Roark technologies. It’s where we develop computers, electronics, batteries, and storage.” She went on for nearly five more minutes pointing out how the many companies were either from one of the two families or a blend of them. “Notice anything interesting?” The way her eyes danced let me know she fully expected me to put two and two together without any more prompting from her.

I looked over the chart several times before I noticed the line at the very top beside the main Roark umbrella. “Where are Stroman Pharmaceuticals and Software?”

Her smile widened. “I knew you were smart.” She clicked on the line and it flipped the page to Stroman Holdings. Under that were two companies: Stroman Pharmaceuticals and Stroman Software. “No matter how hard Bernard pushed, Georgia refused to allow these two companies to be absorbed by Roark. They are independent of the rest of Roark Corp.”

“Independent how?”

She clicked back to the Roark chart. “This company is publicly traded. It has a board of directors. Georgia has the controlling interest on the board, but at the end of the day, it’s not her company. This,” she switched back to the Stroman screen, “is hers. Or technicallyyours.”

“Mine?” my mouth went a little dry. I’d worked long enough in the data industry to know what I was looking at even if I didn’t fully understand.

“Victoria Roark inherited a thirty percent stake when Bernard Roark died. She also holds a thirty percent stake that’s currently managed by Georgia.”

MeaningIowned sixty percent of those two companies. They...weremineessentially. My head began to spin.

“But the really complicated part,” Jasmine went on as if she didn’t just drop a massive bomb on my life, “is the Feyereisen brothers. They control forty-nine percent of Roark and have worked relentlessly to gain full control of the board from Georgia. So far she’s been able to outwit them, but not stop their influence. They want Roark and they’re willing to do pretty much anything to wrestle it away.”

My mouth was too dry to swallow. “When did they invest in the company?” The spinning in my head got worse by the second.

She clicked through a few screens before finding the answer. “1988.”

The year my family members mysteriously began dropping dead.

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