Marcus sat at the head of his boardroom table watching as, one by one, his peers filed in to the room for the quarterly Falcon Group board meeting. Henry strode in first, his chest puffed out, his red hair thinning at the crown.
“Morning, Marcus,” he said, shortly. Marcus nodded in greeting. He knew things hadn’t been great between them since he’d insisted on reviewing all the Venture arm finances himself; something Henry had been responsible for. But Marcus didn’t care. What mattered to him was the survival of their business – his business. That mattered more to him than bruising Henry’s ego. Bruises fade eventually; failed businesses hang around for a lifetime.
Lucas Whittaker, who looked after Falcon Ventures, followed in his pin-striped Oswald Boateng suit. He was the youngest and newest member of the board. He was bright and brilliant, almost as passionate about start-ups as Marcus himself – a real find, Marcus thought, congratulating himself. Lucas was often teased by the older men for his quirky sense of style, which extended from a wardrobe packed with Wang, McQueen and Gaultier to his choice of car - a pristine 1960’s E type Jaguar which had set him back a cool million. But Lucas ran rings around the other board members. What they turned out in a day, Lucas could pack into one hour. He was fast, nimble and unafraid of anything. He gave Marcus a cursory glance and nod before returning to his blackberry and typing out a final email before the meeting began.
Charles Campbell, Falcon’s Chief of Operations entered next, followed by Theodore Montgomery, MD of the Personal Investments business.
Finally, Alistair Rothschild, Falcon’s Chairman and Marcus’s trusted confidante arrived. His hair looked a little whiter these days and his face was slightly pained but he still managed a broad smile, easing Marcus’s tension a little.
“Morning, gentlemen,” Marcus began. “Shall I quickly run through the agenda? Then, Alistair, you can take over…”
“I have something to add.” Henry interrupted.
“To the agenda?” Marcus asked.
“Yes.” Henry took a deep breath and puffed out his chest further, a mannerism Marcus had seen many times before during heated exchanges with his opponents over the years. “It’s a matter of high priority.”
“Of course,” Marcus, concealing his annoyance at the late entry without prior consultation. Marcus glanced around the room. The men were all looking at him expectantly. “What needs to be discussed?”
“You.” Henry said simply and with a look of smug satisfaction.
Marcus sat back in his chair. He’d known this conversation would have to happen at some point; the matter of his affair being made public and how that reflected on Falcon Group. But of all the people he’d expected to instigate it, Henry wasn’t one. But then again, Henry hated how Marcus was interrogating his area, his responsibilities, Marcus knew that. The two of them had grown distant. But they were both adults, Marcus had reasoned, Henry would get over it; he’d have to, for the sake of the business. They were both still the face of Falcon, to an extent – Marcus more so, but Henry had nurtured an image as the financial whizz kid second-in-command – and they had history. Surely, Henry wouldn’t throw that away for some petty resentment?
“You’ve had an unfortunate time of it lately,” Henry began. “I’m sure we all agree you’ve been through hell and back these last few weeks.”
“Thank you, Henry,” Marcus replied, warily. “It’s in the past now, but I appreciate the acknowledgement.”
“I’m afraid, Marcus, it’s not quite all in the past,” Henry said, glancing down at several reports in front of him. “Falcon took a massive knock when news of your, um, activities broke out. Our reputation has been severely impacted, and we’ve lost some key investors.”
Marcus looked at Theodore Montgomery, Henry’s sidekick. “Theo, you manage our investor relationships; have you seen evidence of this?”
Theodore squirmed uncomfortably. His plump, ruddy cheeks flamed as he looked up to meet Marcus’s gaze. Sweat patches were growing under his armpits and his shirt strained across his ever-expanding waistline.
“Well …” he began, his voice shaky. “We have lost two major clients because they hadn’t been able to see you in person.”
“Which clients?” Marcus asked, still smiling.
“Sir Antony Balding and Lady Caroline Tamworth-Jones.”
Marcus sat back and rubbed his hands together, relaxing into the frosty atmosphere. “Theo. Do you remember the conversation we had when we hired you?”
Theo looked from Marcus to Henry. Stupidly, he hadn’t expected to be challenged. He searched Henry’s face for a sign that everything was going to be ok. Henry’s stern concerned expression hadn’t changed.
“Can … can you remind me?”
“Of course, Theo. The reason you were hired was to step into my shoes for that very reason. I’m only one person; I can’t spend time with each and every one of our clients. Otherwise that’s all I’d be doing. And I have a business to run.”
“Yes, I remember that,” Theo replied. “But …”
“And do you remember that, in preparation for your appointment, we’d carried out a risk analysis and identified the potential losses such an appointment might incur, which included the loss of certain clientele.”
Theo’s eyes widened. He recalled the conversation now but had clean forgotten. He glanced at Henry for help, but Henry was ignoring him, staring straight ahead, his expression still fixed.
“We concluded that the advantages we’d gain from having a Managing Director focused on developing the Investment business would far outweigh the risk that we might lose one or two clients.”
Theo nodded, embarrassed.
“And you might also remember that the two names you just mentioned, were the ones we’d identified as risks?” Marcus looked around the room. Alistair was now watching Henry closely and Lucas had narrowed his eyes at Theodore. “So, what seems to have happened,” Marcus finished, “is that our forecast was correct.”
Theodore gulped and looked back at the papers in front of him, humiliated. Marcus smiled at the other men. He was enjoying himself. He turned back to face Henry.
“Do you have any other evidence that my activities, as you put it, have severely impacted Falcon?”
Henry’s face turned red with anger; he could hardly contain himself.
“Your affair has dragged us all through the shit, Marcus,” he spat. The other men looked at him, astonished at his outburst. “We’ve all been tarred with your brush and Falcon’s reputation is in ruins; we’re the seediest set-up in the City!”
Now that Henry had captured everyone’s attention, he found his stride. “Ever since that bossy, blonde little … slut got access to you, you’ve been a different person. You neglected your role, you doled out favouritism; you literally slept on the job. She had you wrapped around her little finger. You were oblivious to the fact she was here under false pretences and you turned a blind eye to anything she did that was bad for business. You were thinking with your dick and Falcon has found itself at the heart of the biggest corporate scandal since Harry Stonecipher fucked his way out of Boeing.”
Marcus baulked at the comparison.
“There’s no denying it’s because of you, our name has been dragged through the mud and we’ve become gutter press fodder overnight. It’s humiliating for us, for your staff, your clients, and it’s been entirely your doing.” Henry sat back in his chair, his eyes piercing into Marcus’s. “That, Marcus, is why I’m questioning whether you’re fit to remain our CEO.”
The room fell silent with only the sound of Theo’s laboured breathing. Theo had his eyes fixed on the agenda in front of him; clearly Henry had dragged him into his corner. That didn’t come as a surprise – Theo was Henry’s hire and an old school friend.
The other men were now looking up in alarm at the vicious change in Henry’s tone and the words he’d just hurled at Marcus. They knew Henry had an agenda, but they hadn’t expected him to turn on Marcus so aggressively.
Henry released a long, slow breath. “Despite all that,” he continued. “I’m obviously aware that Falcon is your baby. It would unfair to expect you’d want to step away completely. And you are, after all, an asset to the Group. Therefore, I thought we could discuss you taking on Lucas’s role of MD of Falcon Ventures …”
Lucas glared at Henry, horrified. “Excuse me? What would happen to me?”
Henry continued. “We could have a shake-up of roles across the board, so we all have a chance to develop and inject some fresh insight into each other’s directorates. It’s a win-win proposal for you Marcus. You may not see it now, but you’ll be able to take a step back, focus on the part of the business you love, focus on getting your personal life back on track. And you can do all that confident that the rest of the Group will benefit from the rejuvenation of having fresh eyes in every area. The Group will benefit, and you will benefit.” Henry finished with a smile, pleased he was able to add a sales spin to the notion that he was effectively calling to have Marcus kicked out of his CEO post.
Marcus glared at him. He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. He’d known Henry was angry at the way he’d had stepped in to evaluate the entire Group’s finances, but he’d had no idea the vengefulness ran this deep. Since the story broke, give or take two weeks when Marcus was away patching things up with Annabel, he’d worked day and night to ensure Falcon was protected as much as possible against the onslaught of bad press. Their finances had been left unscathed and the headlines fell away as soon as the next scandal hit. But Henry’s ego had been bruised and this was his payback.
“If more than half of you are in agreement, I’ll certainly add it to the agenda for the next board meeting. Shall we take a quick vote? Everyone in favour of discussing me stepping down as CEO, please raise your hand.”
Only Henry and Theo raised their hands. Alistair, Charles and Lucas remained still.
“I’m sorry, Henry, there aren’t enough of us in favour of such a discussion, so it won’t be an agenda point. Please feel free to put some time in my diary if you’d like to discuss this further with me.”
Henry’s face glowed red with anger, the line between hair and skin becoming more and more blurred. Shaking, he spat at Marcus. “Then what about your misconduct? We have honourable reasons for proposing this. You are unfit to lead this business after everything that’s happened. You should stand down anyway.”
“Exactly what misconduct are you referring to?” Marcus asked, calmly. He wanted to hear Henry spell it out.
“You employed someone who loaned money without authorisation and lied about it.”
“That particular discrepancy took place within your directorate, Henry, and you had no knowledge of it. You were the one accountable for that action, not I.”
Henry stood up, his fists clenched and his face raging. “But you found out and you didn’t do anything about it! In fact, you started sleeping with her, for God’s sake.”
Marcus got his feet. “I didn’t do anything about it, Henry, because I damn well agreed with her decision; it was the right thing to do. If she hadn’t taken the initiative, that business would have gone under, losing us a lot more than three hundred thousand, which, by the way, has been paid off in full, plus interest. That ‘slut’ as you call her, actually bloody made us money out of the situation that you, Henry, ultimately allowed to happen.”
Henry seethed, his face shaking with anger.
“And as for the fact I was sleeping with her,” Marcus continued. “How dare you judge me when I’ve lost count of how many women – employees – you’ve slept with since I started this business? But I kept my mouth shut. You’ve jumped on this, the first time I’ve ever got involved with a member of my staff, as a reason to throw me out. Your shallowness amazes me.”
Henry, for once, looked momentarily sheepish.
“And for your information, I wasn’t ‘just sleeping’ with Charlotte Matheson. There was more to it than that. Anyone who came into contact with her knew she was one hell of a business woman, and a real loss to Falcon. Fair enough, having a relationship with her while being in another hasn’t been the best move I’ve made, but don’t use Charlotte as an excuse to get me out. And do not speak ill of her.” His voice cracked slightly. “She did a lot for Falcon. If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t have invested in Skilld, and Lure would have, without a shadow of a doubt, gone under and cost us our entire investment. So, don’t you dare, Henry, ever bring her into a conversation again that she doesn’t deserve to be in.”
All eyes were again on Henry. He touched the table for balance; this had gone far, far worse than he’d expected.
“Do I make myself clear?” Marcus asked, his face concrete.
Henry nodded, wishing the ground would open up and swallow him. He looked around the room at the idiots who’d failed to back him up and wondered how he could ever work with them again. He would have to find another way to get Marcus out. A vote of no confidence. There’s a chance it could work if Henry could persuade the fence-sitters. Theo was weak but he would do pretty much anything Henry asked of him. Lucas was young and materialistic – with a little bribery, Henry could turn the boy around. Charles was detached enough that Henry might be able to find a way to reason with him, win him around. As for Alistair, he and Marcus were close and respected each other in a way Henry had always resented. But that hardly mattered if Henry had the rest of the board on-side.
“Right,” Marcus continued, forcing himself to focus on the meeting. He’d had his suspicions but now he was certain: Henry was the one who’d leaked the affair to the Mail. His long-time friend, partner and peer had betrayed him completely. But he couldn’t think about that right now. Picking up the papers in front of him, he got straight down to the business of being CEO. “Back to the agenda.”