Chain Reaction 4.6: Partnership

 

A/N: Something from 4.1 brought this chapter into being, and it features Alexander Goth's grandson Valentino. I thought I'd include the tree thing again as a reminder if nothing else. Note: Drake and Emily are/were the same age. This puts Valentino closer to the age of Alex's son Alaric (few years younger).

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Valentino

     My grandmother had been staying with me these past weeks, just so we all could keep an eye on her and her failing health, when she drops dead one afternoon.

     She was the last parent I had, well, not including my grandfather and company, which I usually don't. I'm truly an orphan now.

    As soon as I can manage it, I have a funeral for her, it taking place in my house, a house left to me by my father, which was given to him by my grandfather Kenneth. Out of duty, I invite my Goth grandfather.

     He brings her with him.

     For years, I lived with them. I'd not wanted to move in in the first place, but as a child, my father forced me. He was in some hair-brained plot to try and steal that woman from his father, and I got caught up in it. Eventually, Dad went to jail, but I still remained with my grandfather because I was underage.

 

     I hated it there. Even Alaric would wish me gone from time to time.

     I was worse than the 'red-headed step-child,' I was a reminder of who my father was. I know Emily hated me. My father was a monster, and looking at me reminded her of him and the abuse she suffered from him.

     But how was that my fault? She closed her mind, shut me out, so I shut all of them out.

     As soon as I could manage, I escaped, moving back home to live with my other grandparents in this house. When I came of age, it officially became mine. My mother's uncle also left me a large fortune upon my turning eighteen, which came as quite a surprise.

     My grandmother kept searching, and we found Morgan Haywood, my old nanny. As a child, I loved her. She moved in with us, and for a while, the three of us were happy.

     Only now, Grandmother has passed on.

     I wrote her obituary, keeping it respectful and loving. I'll miss her. For a long while, she was the closest thing I had to a mother.

     Which makes me wonder...

     I notice the online paper keeps an archive of previous obituaries, so I search my birth mother's name.

 

     Grandmother would never tell me how she died.

     Violet Franco Goth died in her home. It then says the date and who's she's survived by. She died at home? And the next one listed in my search is a Donovan Franco, her uncle. He died the same night, murdered by his bodyguard. This has Dad written all over it.

      I'm startled by my phone ringing in my pocket. Answering it out of curiosity, I find it's Oliver Landgraab's personal assistant. He wants to meet with me.

     Like myself, he bases his operations out of his home. Well, I will base my own operations out of my home once I take control of the company. Since Dad's arrest, and then later death, it has been handled by a board of directors. My grandmother was the head of it, but now, it's mine.

     What would Landgraab want? 

     Upon arriving, a man escorts me to the office. Landgraab's house is much smaller than mine, I notice immediately. I suppose it makes sense. The Taylors ruined them.

      I walk in and head towards a chair, but the blond man hops up out of his and walks around his ridiculously-huge desk.

     He quickly exchanges niceties, shaking my hand as he does so. Then, motioning to his right, he says, "Please, have a seat." He takes the other one. "I'm assuming you're curious as to the purpose of this meeting." The other man stands against the wall behind us.

 

     "Naturally," I reply. A man who cuts right to the chase. Good. I hate small talk. 

     "I wish to offer my condolences on the passing of your grandmother. She was a great lady."

     "Thank you." Well, so much for no small talk. 

     "Unfortunately, her passing has left me in a bit of a pickle. Landgraab Industries was in negotiations with XYZ to sponsor our latest development in medical technology." XYZ is my newly-acquired company.

     I clear my throat. "You'll have to understand, Mr. Landgraab-"

     "Oliver, please," he interrupts, asking me to call him by his first name.

     I offer a small smile. "Then please call me Valentino, but as I was saying, my grandmother has passed very recently, and I haven't had time to go over everything left to me." Which I will get to asap as soon as I get home. I admit I'd been putting it off because it made her passing just that more real.

     "Yes, well, you see, that may be where the issue arises. The arrangement was still in the beginning stages. We had yet to have any signed paperwork on the matter. I don't know if the board sided with your grandmother to fund the project."

     "I see. So you assume everything you're telling me would've been swept under the rug and never brought to my attention." Ah. So there it is. He needs money and smells a lot of it coming from the heir to Kenneth's company as well as the surprise windfall of the Franco fortune: me. 

     He sighs, relaxing more into his chair. "Precisely."

     "But tell me, Oliver, XYZ is a shipping company. Why would it be interested in investing in medical technology?" It's a damn good question.

     He smiles.

 

     "Because Laura Franklin was one hell of a businesswoman. Once she heard about our discoveries, she wanted in. She was interested in branching out by forming a kind of partnership with Landgraab Industries. To appease the board, we were going to offer sole rights of distribution."

     "Distribution of what exactly?"

      He chuckles. "The work of three generations: a multi-drug that cures almost any ailment."

     I smirk. "You're joking. Something like that couldn't possibly exist. Everything? It's not possible."

     He grins. "I assure you it is. Perhaps not in our grandfather's time, but now, it's a reality."

     Science wasn't my favorite subject in school, but even I know that not all illnesses are created equal. "Wouldn't the 'multi' part of it cause side effects?" Eh, it's a shot in the dark, but I want him to keep talking and give me more info.

 

     He blinks and backs his head up, a gesture of impressed surprise. "There were, and it set us back quite a bit. However, after some further testing, we found a solution. And it works. The government is set to approve of it any day now."

     "You're pitching this to me without government approval yet?" I swallow a laugh.

     "It's only a matter of time."

     "So what exactly was the arrangement Grandmother was going to make with you?" For now, I'll have to take him at his word.

      "Weeeell, it was more of an intention instead of an arrangement. Like I said, we were in negotiations."

     Something I can't pinpoint clicks inside me, like a notch falling into place. "Allow me to help you out here, Oliver. I'm not a man who enjoys chitchat, so here's how I see it: Your company has manufactured what could very well be a miracle, yet you lack the funding needed, probably for mass production, et cetera, in order to continue."

     "Something like that."

     I give him a look implying that I wasn't finished. "And you're offering distribution rights should I sign on and help provide funding. But mere distribution is a drop in the bucket. How am I to convince a board to sign on to this with such a small morsel? I want fifty percent of the profits. We'll work out distribution later." I feel I'm being generous with the fifty percent.

     Apparently, he disagrees.

     "Fifty? Why should I give you fifty when it's a Landgraab formula? All I require from you is an investment. I can find that elsewhere, but I contacted you in deference to your grandmother. I was willing to offer you ten."

     I have the gall to laugh. "Yes, you did come to me. How am I to know if you haven't already offered your trivial ten percent to others and failed?" I struck a nerve.

     "I can't do fifty. I have my employees to think of as well as general running costs. The highest I can go is fifteen."

     "Screw the board. I have other... means... at my disposal. If I'm allowed a demonstration and access to solid scientific data, minus the formula, of course, I'll plug my own money into this. But I want thirty-five percent for the first seven years and twenty-five after that." I hold up my hand to his balking. "With the option of you buying me out after the first seven years." I see the wheels in his head start to turn. "I will provide you the capital you need. And, naturally, I'm sure XYZ would love to strike a deal for the distribution rights."

     He smiles, and I find I like the wicked gleam in his eyes.

     "Change seven to five, and we might have a deal."

     I shrug. "Six and guaranteed distribution rights for XYZ." The board won't have a problem with that.

     "I'll get my lawyers on it. I believe we've begun something of a partnership, Valentino."