“Holy hell. She alright?” he asked.
“I have no fucking clue. But, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. And she was alone. No lawyer. No briefcase, no argument, no nothing. It was like she didn’t even come to fight it.”
“Did you give your speech?” he asked.
“Yeah. I told them about how it was her father’s wish for me to have the company, but that I had no intentions of kicking her out unless she wanted to leave. I told the judge how we worked well as a team, and then I provided evidence to my argument.”
“Which was?”
“What started all this was misallocated stocks in the company. There was 10 percent or some shit like that of stocks that were still in Charles’s name. They weren’t given to anyone in his will, and no one could find paperwork on it, so it hung up his entire fucking estate in court,” I said.
“That doesn’t really sound like Stella had much control over the outcome,” he said.
“Had she controlled her anger from the beginning instead of instating a witch hunt, we could’ve tackled it as a team without all this bullshit. But, once it was found, it was out of her hands. At least, that’s what my lawyer told me. But, he advised me to not allow that to soften me. So, I didn’t let it,” I said. “But, I did end up finding paperwork on the stock eventually. It’s not actually allocated to Charles. Not technically.”
“Then whose stock is it?”
“He set it aside for the charities he supported. That’s how he was doing all the donations to them. It’s made me rethink my entire donation strategy for the company,” I said. “He set aside that stock in his name, but in the ‘allocation’ box, it has the list of charities that he splits it evenly with. At the end of every year, he scoops a bit off the top and the company matches the donation. That’s what he’s been doing.”
“Did the judge side with you on that argument?” he asked.
“Yeah, but not before Stella had a chance to speak. I was standing up and telling the judge I was wasting their time. Stella had to go to the bathroom, and for a split second I actually convinced myself that maybe me running the company wasn’t the best scenario for that moment in time,” I said.
“And all because Stella looked like shit?” he asked.
I registered the tone of his voice, and I knew he was getting suspicious. I took a long drink of the coffee before I swallowed it hard, and that’s when Todd let out a heavy sigh.
“Keep going, dude,” he said.
“Stella came back in and interrupted me. She told the judge about how selfish she had been and how she had started her whole crusade to get the company back becaus
e she wasn’t ready to let her father go. She said that taking the company back would be like allowing him to take a few more breaths or something before she let him die, and it killed me to hear her say those words, Todd. She called me a genius and said the company was going to flourish under me better than it ever had under Charles, but all I could think about was the reason why she started it in the first place.”
“Because she missed her dad,” he said.
“Yeah,” I breathed.
“So, the judge signed the company back over to you?” he asked.
“Yep. He executed the whole of Charles Harte’s will right there in court so it couldn’t be overturned. My lawyer’s filing the paperwork as we speak, and come the beginning of next week, the company will default back to me,” I said.
“I’m proud of you, man. I really am. This is what you're supposed to be doing, and I’m glad you’re going to get to continue to do it.”
“Still no chance of convincing you to open your own coffee shop?” I asked.
“Not a fat ass chance,” he said, smirking. “Why? That coffee suck?”
“It’s terrible, dude. The fuck did you give me?” I asked.
“Some shit they had out front. It’s gross,” he said.
“Then why the hell did you bring it to me?”
“I wanted to see if you would keep your mouth shut like always or if you’d finally grown the balls throughout this entire process to speak your mind.”
I could feel his stare on me, and something told me he knew. He knew I was holding something back and he knew it was about Stella. He was just waiting for me to say something.
Waiting for me to grow a pair and be a man.