Chapter Thirteen
Very few people had ever entered Melanie Brunswick’s home other than the woman herself. She didn’t often—or ever, really—entertain guests and so she was woefully underprepared when she opened the door to her older siblings, both of whom had their eyes glued to the phones as they walked into the “cozy little place.” Melanie thanked them and took their coats, hanging them on a rack that had only held her own jackets, before offering them refreshments.
“I’d love a latte right now,” Ann said, taking a seat on the sofa, her eyes never straying from the screen of her iPhone. Her eyebrows were knitted together at something as her thumbs typed furiously.
“Same,” Ian added as he took a seat next to her, propping his feet up on the coffee table.
“Um, I’m not really sure how to make a latte,” Melanie admitted. “Is hazelnut coffee alright?”
“I love hazelnut,” Ann said.
“I despise it,” Ian huffed. “Water’s fine.”
“Water, then,” Melanie sighed, making her way into the kitchen, where she turned on the coffee machine and reached into the fridge for a bottle of water (she was sure that Ian wouldn’t be rude about it, but she could already see the wrinkle of his nose if she tried to hand him a glass of tap). While she waited for the coffee cup to fill up, she set about filling a tray with cheese and crackers (a snack that she always had on hand due to her love of simple treats), and knocked Ian’s feet from her coffee table in favor of the snacks. She gave him a look that she hoped matched the one her father used to give all three of them and the way he bristled made her just the tiniest bit proud.
You don’t want to be like your father, Aiden’s voice said in the back of her mind. She shook it off and forced a smile, even as her siblings’ attention remained riveted to their phones.
When the coffee was done, Melanie retrieved the cup and handed it off to her sister with a couple packets of sugar and a small pack of cream.
Ann drank the coffee black.
“So,” Melanie said, after a long moment of silence in which her siblings continued to tap at their phones and dig into their respective beverages and snacks, “What’s the plan?”
“What do you mean?” Ian asked. “Didn’t we make it clear already?” He turned to Ann. “You told her about the streamlining thing, right?”
“Obviously,” Ann huffed.
“Well, obviously it’s not so obvious if she doesn’t even know what the plan is, Annie.”
“Don’t call me Annie,” Ann huffed. “And I definitely made it obvious.” She turned back to Melanie. “Didn’t I?”
“Well…sort of,” Melanie replied, taking a seat in her armchair. “But I didn’t think anything was really solid yet, you know? I mean I was still on the fence about everything, but now I’m all in and I don’t know if the plans have changed.”
“Why would the plans have changed?” Ann asked.
“Yeah,” Ian agreed. “Don’t you think the plans we currently have are good?”
“Of course I do!” Melanie insisted. “They’re…great. I just wasn’t sure…” She took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said. “So…streamlining. How does that work, exactly?”
“Well, after we acquire the company,” Ann explained, finally slipping her cell back into her pocket, “we go through all the staff. We determine who needs to stay to make the company appear successful and who needs to go. Usually that means factory workers and unnecessary personnel. We, of course, need to keep most of the higher-ups to keep up appearances, but even some of those can be trimmed off. Then, we get a supply list and start researching cheaper materials. Even a few hundred dollars can add up to a lot in the long run. We keep the company open for about three months; so that we can up our profit margins and make the company look extremely successful under our leadership. Then we sell.”
“With our increased profit margin,” Ian added, “we should be able to make a pretty hefty profit from the sales, which we will split evenly, of course. And then we buy up even more companies and do the same.”
“What happens to the companies after we’ve sold them?” Melanie asked. “To the people that remain? With all those cheaper supplies and the poor leadership, won’t they go under?”
“Most of them will, yes,” Ann confirmed, taking a sip of her coffee, coolly. “But a few of the bigger tech companies will be able to stay afloat if they start selling their products for-profit. Eventually, those companies will get back on better footing, but it will take a long while. That’s okay, though. That’s the price you pay for success.” She shrugged.
“Why do you care, anyway?” Ian asked. “Once we sell them, those companies won’t be our problem anymore. Who cares if they’re successful?”
“Well, shouldn’t we?” she asked. “If we’re the ones buying them up and selling them? Otherwise, won’t we build up a bad reputation for ourselves?” There was something like butterflies in the pit of her stomach now, only this wasn’t as pleasant. They felt more like…moths.
“Father did stuff like this all the time,” Ann reminded her, “and his reputation never suffered for it. Sometimes, you just need to be a shark and take what you need without worrying what anybody else thinks of you. Daddy was a shark and so are we.” She shared a look with Ian, before they both looked back at Melanie.
“Are you willing to be a shark, Mellie?” Ian asked, lifting one eyebrow at her.
Melanie had to think long and hard about that. Of course she wanted to be successful and, despite what Aiden thought or said, being like her father had always been the goal, business-wise. Her brother and sister had no qualms about doing something like this, so why should she?
Just the thought of Aiden disapproving had fire burning in Melanie’s chest as she gritted her teeth and took a deep breath, nodding her head. It might have been petty and vindictive, but she wasn’t about to let him dictate her actions, as he had been doing for the last couple of months now.
As her own father had tried to do, post-mortem.
“I’m in,” she announced, to her siblings’ visible delight. Ann even stood and pulled Melanie in for a tight hug.
“Dad would be so proud,” she whispered in Melanie’s ear and, for the first time, there was not a doubt in her mind that that was the absolute truth.
She just didn’t know how to feel about it now.
*****