Hostile Takeover Ch. 01

Charlotte looked worse than I'd ever seen her. Her beautiful red hair was tangled and matted. Her skin appeared sallow and she had large blotches all over her face. She also had not just bags, but suitcases under her eyes. Her eyes themselves, those fiery green embers that once burned in her skull, showing her passion and emotion, were dull lifeless gems.

"Press, this is all some kind of terrible nightmare. Why did it take you so long to come for me? What is going on? How did I get here?" she starting talking to me in rapid fire sentences that all ran together, as soon as she saw me. She reached out to hug me but I moved away from her.

"Press what's wrong? I don't know what they've told you, but it isn't true. I love you, and you love me. That's all that matters. Whatever else is going on we'll work our way through it together, no matter what." she said.

"Charlotte, this isn't about what someone said," I told her. "It's about what I saw with my own eyes. Charlotte, for now you need to concentrate on getting well. You need to get all of the drugs and alcohol out of your system. We need to take care of all or your problems first. Then we can take a look at whether or not we can save our marriage."

Charlotte went from frantic and pleading to icily cold then. The personality change was so rapid it was eerie. "Alan was right," she said coldly. "They're all setting this up to take you away from me. That fucking company, my stupid friends, and even my own God damned mother. They're all trying to break us up. Well I won't let them. I'll take them all down so we can be together again."

I was wondering who the hell Alan was, and what she was muttering about.

"Press, no matter what happens. Remember that I'm doing it all so we can be together. I'll never stop loving you, and I won't let you stop loving me either. So tell my mother that I'll be coming for her." she hissed.

I started looking around to see if any of the doctors were watching us, and hearing her rant.

"Alan brought me pictures," she said. There was an evil glint in her eyes and the fire in them was back. "I know that my mother is trying to push one of her little friends on you. I'm not stupid, I know all about your little lunch today."

Charlotte had checked out of reality, but she did have a few facts straight. I wonder how she got the information about my lunch with her mom and Anna so quickly.

For the next few minutes Charlotte ranted about killing anyone and everyone who stood in our way. She also talked about us getting back together, and how we were fated to be together and nothing could stop it. She talked about the company as if it was a living entity that had set out to keep us apart. The company in Charlotte's opinion, was in love with me and trying to suck me in and take me away from her, just as it had her father. I felt like I was trapped in an episode of Pinky and the Brain.

After I got done talking to Charlotte, one of the doctors pulled me over. I was afraid to talk to him until he told me that he had heard a lot of the conversation. He asked me if I was ready to sign Charlotte into the facility, and I agreed. He also told me about Alan Ellington's visit.

I remembered Ellington then. He was the man who'd tried to put someone else in charge of the company at the board meeting.

Later, I called Amanda and asked her if I could stop over for dinner. She told me she'd love to have me come over, but Anna was there, so there'd be three of us. At dinner I told her about my visit with Charlotte and her ranting. I also told her about Ellington and his visit to Charlotte. She said she'd look into it. He might've been somewhere in the background pulling the strings all along.

Over the next few weeks, things moved along. Anna and I got closer. It wasn't anything planned or orchestrated we just seemed to be drawn together. I didn't think that Amanda had noticed until she brought it up one day in that non-subtle way of hers.

"Annalise, wishes that you hadn't married Charlotte," she said. "She really likes you, maybe even more than that. But we both know that she's too honorable to even tell you while you're married to Charlotte. She's also afraid to start anything with you anyway since she may not live for very much longer."

"What do you mean?" I asked. Amanda wasn't making sense.

"Press, she tries very hard not to show it, but she's in a state of increasing discomfort from her kidneys. Her doctors are telling her that her kidneys may fail soon. She is of course on the transplant list. But so are thousands of others."

I felt like someone had hit me in the head with a hammer. Anna was always smiling and so concerned with making everyone else feel good, that I'd kind of put her situation out of my mind. The days when she wasn't at work, because she had to go to dialysis were simply filed away as if she was a college student who worked part time to allow for their class schedule.

"Press, all I'm saying is that she likes you; that's all you should think about. This is a very unusual situation so morally or ethically, the normal rules just don't seem to apply. If you like her as well, don't waste any time, because you may regret it later. I don't want you to sit here when you're older and think, "I wish I had done this, or I should have done that." After losing Sam so quickly, I realize that life is just too short for regrets."

I had to wrap my head around this as well. Was Amanda actually giving me permission to start a relationship with another woman while I was still married to her daughter? Charlotte had cheated on me, and she had done so more than once. But that was still no reason for me to betray my vows to her. That would make me as bad as she was. I didn't think that Amanda was the devious type, but could this be part of some plan of hers.

Charlotte cheated on me. If I cheat on her with Annalise, since we're both guilty, maybe, we could get back together later. Could that be Amanda's thinking?

"Press, as we've been talking, I've thought about our Ellington problem and I don't know why he'd visit Charlotte. I also don't know where they'd have met or the nature of their relationship, but I don't like it," she said.

"I want you to call the clinic and have him barred from visiting her. And tomorrow there's another meeting of the board. I'll pick you up from the plant at 12:30. I want you at the meeting with me. I think we'll have to take care of Mr. Ellington. This makes twice he's inserted himself into a situation. To keep him from becoming a problem down the line, we need to address him now." She smiled at me and patted my hand.

I started to realize that Amanda was at least as smart as Sam had been. She was far more aggressive when it came to dealing with business than he ever was. Sam was kind of like me, he'd always been content to just run the machines, and deal with the customers.

The next day I found myself feeling edgy, and looking at the clock all morning. By 8:00 a.m. I had the floor running smoothly, no problems, no issues. I told Myra that I had an errand to run, and I left. I drove to the hospital and got directions to the dialysis center. Once I got there, I asked the nurse on duty where I'd find Annalise.

Anna was lying on a bed, reading a magazine. Her face did show signs of some discomfort. There was a nurse walking around visiting all of the patients. Anna couldn't see me because of the partitions that separated each bed into small cubicle like sections.

I waited for her to turn her head, and she didn't but after a few moments she closed her eyes and laid her head back. I crept over and held her hand as I sat down next to her.

It was almost instantaneous. Her eyes opened and her face lit up.

"Preston, what are you doing here?" she asked smiling.

"I just thought that one of my favorite people should have some company," I said. That caused an even bigger smile. "Actually, I'm here for selfish reasons though. When I got to work this morning, I realized that I missed you."

She didn't say anything she just stared at me, smiling. I filled her in on everything that she missed out on at work that morning, and even the things that had happened when I visited Charlotte the night before. She was shocked by Charlotte's behavior and personality swings. It made me wonder why Amanda hadn't been.

The next thing I knew a nurse had come over and Anna was done with her treatment. She'd be weak for a while, it was one of the results of the treatment, but she'd grown used to it.

I asked her if she wanted me to follow her home, just in case something happened. She just gave me the Anna smile, and told me she never drove to her treatments, she always took a taxi. So I drove her home. I apologized for my car's rough ride, and cramped quarters, but she just smiled at me and told me, it was the most comfortable ride she'd ever had. I told her that I knew she was lying. She said it was the company, not the quiet or the comfort, that made the ride special.

I was still thinking about that when I stepped into the conference room for the board meeting. I'd called Amanda, and told her that I'd be a few minutes late, and not to pick me up.

I arrived just at the conclusion of the old business discussion. A few moments later they started asking about new business. I gave my report on what we'd done in the past few months, and new business that was coming in. My report was taken very positively by the board and I was relieved. I looked over to where Ellington was sitting. Truthfully, I was expecting him to have something to say, but he didn't.

We were just about to adjourn the meeting, when Amanda began speaking. She reminded all of the board members that they were elected to their positions, and those positions were considered an honor, by the company and all of its stock holders. With that honor went the responsibility to put the good of the company and its employees and stock holders at a high priority. There were several nods of agreement with what she said.

Then she stood up and looked at me. She said that as much as she loved me, and thought that I was the best possible candidate to run the plant, I shouldn't be at a board meeting. Only members of the board of directors should be here. I couldn't believe that Amanda would do something like that to me. She had asked me to come to the meeting. I wondered if she was angry at me because I'd come late. But she was smiling at me like she always did. Had she actually said that she loved me?

Amanda called for an immediate vote to re-instate the old policy barring non-members from attending board meetings except in very rare situations. Ellington, who obviously still hated me for his embarrassment at the last meeting, quickly stood up and seconded it.

Amanda voted all of her stock in favor of it. Ellington who had very little stock but held a few proxies also voted for it. So did very many of the board members there. I controlled my 19 percent of the company's stock and Charlotte's 15 percent. Even with thirty four percent of the stock, plus a few others who voted no. It wouldn't have mattered, I'd have lost if I voted no. So since I didn't want to go to the fucking meetings anyway, I voted with Amanda. She smiled at me again.

Suddenly it dawned on me, that she was planning something. Unconsciously, I guess I'd done the right thing to help her plan.

Amanda then called for another vote, to remove Ellington from the board. He looked shocked.

"What reason do you have, to question my seat on this board," he sputtered. He looked around to see how much support he had, but everyone in the room was as shocked as he was.

"I don't need a reason," hissed Amanda. "I just want a vote."

"But I need time to consider this, or prepare a defense, or a counter vote," he said.

"Where in the company's bylaws does it say that?" Amanda asked.

Ellington couldn't think of a response.

"Gentlemen," began Amanda. "Mr. Ellington has been involved in some shady business. He's been quietly trying to buy up my daughter's shares in the company while she's mentally incapable of making good decisions. I don't think a person like that should be on our board. So basically, here's how this sits. I control 20percent of the company's voting stock. I vote for his removal. My son in law, controls another 19 percent. That makes 39 percent. But oh, wait. He also controls my daughters 15 percent while he's married to her. That adds up to 54 percent of the voting stock. So realistically it doesn't matter what anyone else votes does it?"

Ellington started protesting and sputtering.

"Goodbye Mr. Ellington," she said. "Now we need someone to fill Mr. Ellington's seat. One of our problems on the board is that we're all old tired business men. We're out of touch with what the company does on a daily basis and the new technologies that we're employing. We need some fresh blood on the board. We need someone with their boots on the ground, who can give us more up to date information than the stock reports and company financial reports do."

Several voices agreed with her.

"I nominate Preston Collins, to a seat on this board," she said. Ellington who was still packing up his belongings looked as if he was going to have a stroke. Then, with as much dignity as he could muster, Ellington left the room.

The vote giving me a seat on the board was nearly unanimous.

Over the next few weeks, activity at the plant was business as usual. Amanda and I spoke everyday and had lunch several times a week. I spoke to Charlotte over the phone daily, and visited her every other day. She was very positive, and always telling me what we'd do when she got done with her rehab. I didn't want to give her a false sense of hope, so I was very neutral. I often told her that we had a great deal of issues to deal with if we were ever going to even remain friends, let alone stay married. It was as if she had attributed her cheating to the alcohol and drugs and wanted to just sweep it under the rug. I didn't push the issue, because I had to let Amanda work.

Amanda was doing everything she could to get Charlotte to either cede total voting control of her stock to either of us, or sell it outright. Her latest ploy had been to remind Charlotte that when she was done with rehab, she had literally no place to go and no income for the rest of the fiscal year coming from her stock. Unless Charlotte wanted to e homeless or have to get a job she should sell the stock to Amanda or to me. Charlotte on the other hand would remind Amanda that we were still married and that she was sure that I'd forgive her and allow her to come home, so income was a moot point.

The most important thing going on though was that Annalise and I were falling in love. We were nearly always together now. I know that it made me a bad person, but I didn't feel any sense of guilt or anguish about betraying my marriage vows at all. I guess in my mind Charlotte cheating on me, not once, but who knows how many times during our relationship, was what ended our marriage. I had intended to file for divorce, but Amanda made me hold off on that until we somehow got control of Charlotte's stock. I was married more as a convenience for business reasons than any emotional ones.

The only thing I did regret was the fact that Anna and I were spending so much time together that it forced me to see how badly her kidneys were doing. If I had paid a little more attention to what was going on around me things might have ended up differently.

One evening Amanda called me, almost in tears. She'd had a big argument with Charlotte, who'd called her evil and swore that she would kill her. She said that Amanda was a tool of the company, and was just trying to keep Charlotte and me apart. She also said that Amanda had plotted with Annalise to break up our marriage and she was going to take care of both of them.

I told Amanda that I'd come right over and stay with her for a while so she could calm down. She told me to call Charlotte and try to calm her down instead.

I called the clinic and was told that Charlotte had checked herself out of the clinic. Being an adult and supposedly mentally capable meant they couldn't hold her against her will. I suddenly felt alarm bells going off in my head.

That night I stayed over with Anna because I didn't like her coloring and she was in more pain than normal. During the night I ended up taking her to the hospital. The next morning I called the plant and told Myra that I wouldn't be in and neither would Anna. Myra told me that Charlotte had been there, and she looked even crazier than normal.

I called Amanda and warned her that Charlotte was out, but that I was at the hospital with Anna. Amanda drove right over. We both stayed with Anna during the day. Amanda left in the early evening and I had a bad feeling about it. I also had the feeling that we were being watched, but I never saw anyone or noticed that anything was out of place.

A little bit after Amanda left, I must have dozed off. I don't remember going to sleep, but I do remember waking up. Charlotte was in the room staring at me as I held a sleeping Anna's hand.

"I can't believe you're doing this to me," hissed Charlotte. "After all I went through to keep us together. I know this isn't your fault. It's your blind loyalty to that fucking company and my mother. She forced this little whore on you, as my replacement, didn't she? It's a good thing she's dying, or I'd have had to kill her too. According to some of the nurses she won't last much longer. She's got a few days maybe a month at best. Then you'll have to come back to me." Charlotte didn't seem like herself. I had trouble determining whether she was talking to me, or herself.

"I'm not like you Press," she said. "I know how to forgive. I love you, so I'm going to forgive you, for cheating on me with your sick little whore. But I can't forgive my mother for what she's done."

"Charlotte, Amanda hasn't done anything to you. You should go back to the clinic," I said.

"Preston, how did you find out where I was, and what I was doing? I was very careful. I had people watching you to make sure I was always home before you got there," she said. I turned on the voice recorder on my iPhone so I'd have a record of her ranting.

"Press, I love you more than anything else in the world and I never want to lose you. But our life is boring as hell. All you do is work. I needed a diversion, so I took great pains to make sure you never found out. Unfortunately while I had people watching you, my fucking mother, had people watching me. She was the one who told you about me, her own God damned daughter. She tried to cause the end of my marriage, so she could tie you even tighter to her stupid little company. Then she tried to replace me with that little whore. No one does that to me and gets away with it. In order for me to save our marriage, they're both going to have to die, Preston. Nature will take its course with that one," she said pointing at Anna. "I'll have to handle my mother."

She turned and quickly left the room. I was so shocked that I didn't even follow her. I called Amanda back and played the recording for her over the phone. She had me email it to her. Amanda called the police and played the file for them. It was enough to start the police looking for Charlotte so she could be sent back to the clinic. It was also enough evidence of her mental incapacity to involuntarily commit her.

The next morning found me back at the hospital, with little or no change in Anna's condition. I had never been a religious person but I prayed for some miracle to either help Anna get better or find us a kidney that would be a good match for her. Both Amanda and I had undergone the procedures to find out whether or not we'd be viable candidates for a transplant for her. I was nowhere near close. Amanda was a close match but not quite close enough for them to risk the surgery.