Ruthless Romeo by Tasha Fawkes

Author:Tasha Fawkes [Fawkes, Tasha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Safira Press LLC
Published: 2022-04-09T16:00:00+00:00

TWO

MY DAUGHTER TELLS ME EVERYTHING

Derek

I couldn’t help but be distracted as I sat in the passenger seat of my father’s car as he drove over to Mayor Carl Lincoln’s estate. Ever since Katy had told me the reason her father’s life had sprawled out of control after losing his job following our company’s takeover of his, I’d felt unsettled. I’m not sure why. And I also couldn’t figure out why her father, Brian, hadn’t raised the topic with me during those times we had been alone at the park. It made me uneasy.

I glanced at my father, staring out the window, his hands light on the steering wheel, wrapped up in thoughts of his own. Likely dreaming of his own growing empire. And me? I had some serious thinking to do. I’d never worried much about the people on the other end of our takeovers. All I’d thought about was control, growth, and profits. But now I realize that most of the employees at these companies we had taken over suddenly found themselves out of work. Very few employees outside management positions would get severance packages, or even moved to other positions and satellite businesses in New York City or maybe even across the country.

For the first time, I felt shallow. I felt guilty. How many dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of men and women like Brian had suddenly found themselves adrift after Steele Ventures had taken over their companies? Sure, a lot of them stayed, but a lot of them didn’t or couldn’t. Until this moment, I didn’t realize how many people could truly get hurt in a hostile corporate takeover. It had always just been business. Nothing personal.

But how many Brians were out there? Why hadn’t I ever considered them? Because they weren’t rich? Because I didn’t know them personally? Because I had felt that they just didn’t matter? It was the power that mattered? How many lives had Steele Ventures destroyed? I shook my head and gazed out the window, not seeing the crowded streets, the buildings rising hundreds of feet into the air, or the pedestrians crowding the sidewalks.

I knew it was dangerous for me to entertain such thoughts. The truth be told, being a successful CEO of any company, let alone Steele Ventures, I didn’t have the luxury of allowing my decisions to be guided by my personal feelings or emotions. At least not until now. Not until I’d met Katy.

Until now, I could remain completely detached from the human side of a takeover. It was that detachment that had gotten me where I was today. I was successful. I was rich. I was powerful. This is who my father had trained and molded me to be. This is me. This is what I do. And yet, for the first time in my life, I wondered if this was really who I wanted to be.

We arrived at the mayor’s home, a mansion of course, though these days, a lot of homes in the city were called mansions if they stood on more than an acre of land and ranged three-million-plus.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.