"Where is the boy? Surely, she's not here as his representative," Mr. Granger said, referring to me.
"Ms. Cooke is here as legal counsel," Brett said tightly.
"So are you the one who did it?" the third man asked me. His hair was fair and his face angular and kind of sallow.
"Did what?" I asked.
"Where is he, Hamm?" the last man who had remained silent ‘til then asked, directing the questions back at Brett. He was a big man. His face was round, and he was glaring at Brett like he owed him money.
"He doesn't know either," Mr. Granger raged.
"Of course he does. He's hiding him," the fat man retorted. I sat there too stunned to say anything. I hadn't been to one of these meetings before, but I wanted to guess this wasn't how they usually went. I didn't have that high an opinion on rich men who wore suits, but I wanted to believe they behaved better than this. The rumors of Cameron's location, it appeared, had traveled outside the walls of Porter Holdings.
"Gentlemen," Brett said, trying to calm them. "Mr. Porter's absence follows the tragic accident that took both his parents. It isn't unreasonable that he's retreated from the public eye."
"Alright. Then, where is he?" the man with light hair challenged. Brett was silent.
"It's not his house, is it? How can it be when he listed all his properties?" he asked. Good question. As far as I knew, which was what Cameron himself had told me, this was all supposed to be temporary. Why would you sell all your property if you didn’t mean to come back? It wasn't like he couldn't get more but—why did I even bother? I didn't understand a thing the man did, but finally, I could see the consequences his actions were having on the people he left behind.
"You're part of this, Hamm. What kind of stockholder meeting happens without the majority holder present?"
"I've been in contact with Cameron. There's no need for alarm."
"We're not scared for him," one of the men scoffed. "We want to know what next. Grayson's gone and apparently so is his replacement."
"He isn't gone."
"Well he isn't here," the man said. They argued like that for a while, back and forth about Cameron. They all knew that Cameron had made impromptu sales of his property assets and then dropped off the face of the earth. Where he was seemed to be a mystery to them though, which I didn't want to say was good or bad. Everything at the moment was bad. The consequences of Cameron's bad moves had come to a head. This was only the beginning. If he stayed out there too long, this would only get worse.
Eventually, they would stop waiting and do something about it. I wondered whether he would make them angry enough to get rid of him. A dark part of me wanted that, since Cameron was letting his personal life get in the way of his professional one, and that alone should have earned him a ticket out. All he had to do was come here and sell, but no. If he didn't care about the hundreds of people below him, didn't he at least care that he was fucking things up for his fellow stockholders?
"He's not here, Hamm, so we're looking at you."
"You have nothing to worry about," Brett said calmly, reassuring the angry men. They started talking timelines, how long they were willing to wait before they moved forward, with or without him. The Cameron issue had been their main concern. Once that had been resolved, they hadn’t had much else to discuss.
The room emptied out. I stayed where I was ‘til everyone but Brett and I had left. I exhaled and buried my face in my hands. Holy hell. It was worse than I thought. I heard Brett finally stand up.
"Do you have a minute?" he asked me. I nodded and followed him out of the room. He led me into his office and waited for me to sit across his desk before he did.
"Are they always like that?" I asked finally.
"No. The circumstances this time were a little tricky." That is one way to put it, I thought.
"What now?"
"We don't have that many options, Natalie. Everything leads back to Cameron. Whether he decides to sell or decides to take his father's place, he has to be here to do it."
"You don't really think he's going to sell, do you?"
"I don't know what to think anymore. I've known Cameron since he was a kid, but everything that’s happened lately hasn’t been like him. He’s never run away before. He’s in a bad place, and he wants time alone, but I always thought his sense of duty was stronger than this."
It might have been, but whatever anchor he had had was gone. My parents are probably the only reason why I went to all the parties and events, pretended to like and respect all those people. They're gone, and I don't have to be part of it anymore. His actions when I remembered those words made sense but didn’t justify them.
"If he ever felt a sense of duty, it was to his parents, and he doesn’t have them anymore."
"I can give him that, but this isn't a surprise to him. He's been training for this his whole life. His father told him clearly what he expected from him the day he wasn't at the head of this company anymore. Cameron knows what he has to do, he simply isn't doing it, and nobody here can afford to let him get away with that anymore. It's only going to get worse the more he makes those people wait."
"I think he's telling us what has to happen, Mr. Hamm. Even silence is an answer."