Brotherly Love

I called a press conference. Sasha sat beside me as I looked at the forest of microphones in front of me. "Ladies and gentlemen, as you are aware, our CEO has been arrested and charged, along with two others, with corruption. I need to point out to you that this is a matter that involves the three of them and has nothing whatever to do with the day to day running of this company, that's my side of the business, I do not get involved in the financial side of the business apart from trying to keep to budget. Finances was Henry's forté, I left it right alone, I have enough on my plate, just making sure that the building side of the business works as it should."

"Mister Blakely, who will take over the running of this business?"

"That's for our board to decide, not me."

"But, surely, you being a member of the founding family, would be the right person for the job."

"Like I said, it's a matter for the board to decide."

"Sasha, what was your role in all of this?"

"Rob and I were the first to discover that there was something amiss in the relationship between the three men involved. We did what any normal person would under the circumstances, we went to ICAC with our evidence. This was not sufficient in itself, to warrant arrests at that time, but additional evidence has been obtained that confirmed ours, so ICAC moved quickly. That we did will raise eyebrows and questions. Why did we do it knowing that it could have a detrimental effect on our company and business. We considered that, but the over-riding principle here is that they broke the law, and that was our primary concern. That we can salvage something from this wreckage is something for us to strive to achieve, and achieve it we will."

"That wasn't the question, what was your role in this?"

"My role initially, was, acting on instructions from Henry Blakely, to keep an eye on Robert Blakely because, Henry believed, he would attempt to sabotage the company because, he said, Robert was furious that his wife had left him for Henry. As time went by I came to realise that Robert Blakely was an honourable, hard working and dedicated employee, who was doing the best that he could. It was he that first noticed that there were anomalies in the contract for the recently commenced project. While working closely together to get to the bottom of all of this, we came to realise that we were both in love."

"You have his children living with you at present, how have they taken this news?"

"Very well under the circumstances. It is early days in Robert and my relationship, but Jason and Phoebe both seem to be comfortable with it, and Robyn has accepted us being together. As to my living with him, let's just say that this is a work in progress. Last night was our first together."

"I think that is enough for now, we seem to be drifting off the path, and while it might be more interesting as a bit of salacious gossip, that isn't the point of this press conference, which was to give you information about an important corruption investigation."

We had no sooner arrived home and were sitting down to takeaway Chinese, when there was a knock on the door. It was Robyn. "Can I come in?"

"Sure, have you eaten? We're having Chinese and I'm sure that there's more than enough for you."

"That would be fine, thank you." She sat at the table with the rest of us and helped herself to a decent sized serve of food. "What I really came to see you about is, where do I start, I know that I gave you a hard time during our marriage because you frustrated me. Here was Henry, a successful businessman, running his own company, while you were drifting along in that construction job. You never seemed motivated to get ahead, while Henry was driven to succeed. Then I came to realise that for all of his wealth and success, he never seemed happy, and you, you were not wealthy in the conventional sense of the term, but you were happy most of the time, except when I was comparing you to your brother. Another thing that I noticed about the two of you was that you were never jealous of Henry's success, but Henry, especially over the past three or four months, grew more and more jealous of you."

"Henry was the smart one in the family, at least that's what I was told, but he wasn't in fact the most intelligent of the two. When we were at High School we sat IQ tests, and I rated a good ten points higher. Mother and Father knew about this but told Henry that he was the smartest, because his fragile ego would never cope with that knowledge. I was sent off to learn a trade, not because I was dumb, but because they reasoned that I would be able to make my way on my own. Henry was groomed for stardom, to take over the family company, because he had the drive to succeed in that position. And he did, for a while, but the economic downturn saw a falling off of business and construction companies having to cut back, and Henry couldn't afford for that to happen, Any more than that I can't tell you at this time because it is the subject of this ICAC investigation, and I do not want to jeopardise that process."

"If you were smarter, why didn't you take over the business instead of Henry?"

"Because I wasn't the motivated one in the family, I was quite happy with comfortable, while Henry had to have it all, the fast cars and the trophy wives, his wants were very expensive and he had to find a better income stream, which led him to this mess."

Robyn decided not to stay the night, but Jason and Phoebe both asked if they could, so we had to make up the spare beds. Robyn left to return to the hotel that she had checked into, and it all became quiet, even our lovemaking.

We woke to Phoebe cooking breakfast for us. "I know that you're having to go into work today, so I thought that I'd make it easier and cook breakfast for you. Don't worry, it'll be your turn on Saturday, I intend to sleep in," She adopted a dramatic pose, "I need my beauty sleep."

"Hadn't you better get ready for school? We can drop you off on our way."

"Hadn't you better write me a note so I don't have to go, after all this is a highly stressful situation, the breakdown of Mother's relationship and finding out that Uncle Henry is a bad guy. I couldn't possibly concentrate on my classes."

"What's this about getting out of school?"

"Don't you start, this is and important year for you. You do want to get into Uni don't you?"

"I've been thinking about that. You seem to be doing alright for someone without a university degree."

"I don't know that I'm the best role model for you. That's for you to decide after careful consideration of a variety of factors. We will discuss this this evening, but for today, school."

"It was worth a try."

There was a sombre mood hanging over the office when we arrived. At first I thought it to be a reaction to yesterday's news, but nothing prepared me for the news that awaited us. It was Rod from ICAC who was seated at my desk, that broke it to us. "Your brother Henry has attempted to take his own life. He left a suicide note telling the world that he was not the instigator of this scam, that it was already in existence when he took over the company, and all that he did was to maintain the status quo. He said that his father had been forced into colluding with the other parties in order to increase their financial well-being. He also stated that after the first ICAC hearing he came to realise that he was being made the scapegoat in all of this. The police are suspicious of both the suicide note and the attempt to take his own life."

"Why would you suspect it?"

"Because the doctors have told us that he took just as many pills to make him very ill, but not enough to be lethal. His mental health is being assessed at this time and a report will be prepared before the next hearing. Is there anything that you can tell us about his moods over the past month or so?"

"I think that my ex would be the best placed to give you that information, after all she was living with him. She did tell us last night that he had been getting increasingly more jealous of me lately. Knowing my brother the way that I do, I wouldn't be at all surprised if, when you go through his papers, you don't find something that is his attempt to implicate me in all of this."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because, at the beginning of this current project, I cut a deal with Hamish, the union boss, that would see the project progress without being stopped by industrial action. This deal is different from the one that he had with Henry in that it guaranteed a bonus schedule that included all of the workers as well as himself, if we had no industrial action. On my side of the deal I promised that all work carried out on site would use union labour and would comply with all OH&S regulations. He accepted the deal, but Henry was angry because industrial action was a part of the contingency claim system that they had in place,"

"You were right about his trying to implicate you. Where the attempt fell apart was that we interviewed your Site Manager, George, as well as Hamish, and they both told us the same thing, that you had cut a deal with the unions and that both of them preferred to work with you than with Henry. The phrase 'Rob is a man of his word, but Henry can't be trusted' came into both their evidence. From that I gathered that whatever you have done has been both legal and in the best interests of all parties."

"Thanks for that. Now we have a board meeting to try and sort out where we go from here, so if there's nothing else, we have to get going."

"No, that's all I have right now, but I promise to keep you informed of progress, and thank you for your efforts up to now, we wouldn't be where we are without your help."

The general chatter stopped the instant that Sasha and I entered the board room. The gaze of all the members were on us as we sat down.

"Robert," Gerald Paynter, the Chairman addressed me. "What is the latest news? All we have had to go on is what has appeared in the media and you know how far they can be trusted to get it right."

"I have just been speaking to ICAC. Henry has made an attempt to take his own life." This brought shocked gasps from them all. "I can tell you that this attempt was unsuccessful. He is however, in the Psychiatric ward where his mental health is being assessed. The police are of the opinion that his suicide attempt was never meant to succeed.. As for the fallout of this corruption enquiry, this company has not been implicated in it so it's steady as she goes with current and future projects. The government is holding its own enquiry into this mess to establish if this scandal has been restricted to the one person, or is endemic to the whole contract process. We can only hope that this company is not tarred with the same brush."

"Now, the question of the day is this, who do we get to run this company until another CEO can be appointed? I am of the opinion that you would be the ideal man to take over, in the short term at least, while we assess whether you would be the right man in the long term. What are your thoughts on this?"

"I am prepared to run it for the time being. What I have to assess is the affect that this change in circumstances will have on my family, and whether I actually want the job. For the first part of that assessment I have to defer to the person who would be most affected by this change, Sasha, what do you think?" This brought another astonished look on the faces of the board members.

"Rob, I feel that I know you probably better than you know yourself, and I can tell you that I think that you will be the ideal person to run this company in the long term. I know that you don't want the responsibility of the CEO position, but I also know that you are smart enough to surround yourself with the right people who can, and will, insure that the best interests of this company are maintained. As for the second part of the question, yes, you want the job, not for personal recognition, but for the reason that you want this company to survive this mess and rise above it. This company is your life."

"No, this job is not my life, it is a part of my life, a small part, you and my family are the bigger part, but you know me, probably too well. Yes I can do the job, and yes I will surround myself with people who can lighten the burden of the job for me. Can I have some time to think this through?"

"Yes, we can give you a week to make up your mind." Gerald closed the meeting and headed off to front the media with the announcement. He must have been confident that I would accept the long term role.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming this morning. I have a couple of announcements to make. The first is that our CEO, last night, made a thankfully unsuccessful attempt to take his own life. We are waiting on a medical report, but I can say that he has been suspended while the current investigation into the corruption scandal is carried out. What his actual role in all of this is, is not clear at this point in time. The second announcement is that his brother Robert, who has been working for us over the past year as our Project Director, will step into Henry's shoes while the ramifications of this are assessed. That will be all for now."

Back in my office I turned to Sasha. "Not all that long ago it was al that I could do toget out of bed in the morning. Two things happened on that day, the first was the thought of coming in and being with you, and the second was this weird feeling that something was going to happen, a decision that I was about to make that would have devestating consequences. I thought that the devestation would be something that would affect me, and in a way it did, a positive way. It was Henry that would be devestated by my decision."

Sasha sat on my desk, her thigh disturbingly close to my hand. "I'm glad that you did get out of bed that morning, because I, for one, am pleased with your decision making."

"You do realise the effect that your thigh is having on me, don't you?"

"I should bloody well hope so." She moved it so that my fingers were touching it. "What are you going to do about it?"

"I am going to make my first executive decision. Sasha, will you divert all calls back to the switchboard and close the blinds, and then will you bring your absolutely gorgeous body back here so that I can, we can, partake of some serious love-making."

"Yes boss, darling." That she obeyed me wasn't so much a demonstration of her subservience to me, but her desire to be loved by me.