Bitter Business

psychotic in a straitjacket, it was about a six.”
    “Did she come alone or did she bring Arthur with her?”
    “She brought him. You know, if I were trying to invent the man most likely to annoy Jack Cavanaugh, I’d end up with Arthur Wallace.”
    “Why else do you think she married him?” countered Babbage with a little bit of his usual elfishness. “But you know, when it comes to the present generation, Jack Cavanaugh should consider himself lucky if she marries someone of the same color and the opposite sex! Fathers like Jack always hate their sons-in-law. They invariably think that they’re gorillas—hairy, stupid men who marry their babies for their money. I have to tell you, Lydia’s seemed much more well-adjusted since she married Arthur.”
    “That can’t be possible. I spent an hour with her yesterday, and after the first two minutes I could tell she is one seriously disturbed individual. I can’t even imagine what she must have been like if this is an improvement.”
    “You should have met her right after her second divorce. She was a total malcontent. On her bad days she would lash out at anyone and everyone. On her good days she would sink into a terrible depression. She had absolutely no idea how to go about leading her life. It was frightening to witness. Whatever Arthur’s motives, he’s the first one who’s given Lydia the attention and emotional stability that she craves.”
    “But at what price?” I reached into my purse, pulled out a copy of that morning’s Wall Street Journal, and read him the piece about Lydia and her shares.
    “Has Jack seen this?” Daniel demanded when I’d finished.
    “He called me at home this morning and woke me up.”
    “You have to admit that it was clever of the boys from First Chicago to get her to agree to an item in the Journal. It just makes it that much harder for her to back down. What did Jack have to say?”
    “I haven’t discussed it with him. I wanted to talk to you first, but from his brief call this morning I’d guess he’s furious. I have to be honest with you. I don’t have any sense of how to handle all of them. It’s like herding cats. They all have their own agendas.”
    “Let me tell you what the engine is that really drives a family-owned business. It’s a combination of three parts: love, power, and habit. Jack loves his children, he holds great power over them, but he is in the habit of seeing them in the same way as he did when they were little. He is a shrewd businessman, but he’s got this one big blind spot and that’s his family. Sometimes I think it’s a universal trait that parents don’t ever seem able to see their offspring for what they really are. Maybe that’s what keeps parents from murdering their children—who knows?”
    “But if Jack insists on refusing to believe his daughter is really going to sell her shares and she does go ahead with it—and with Mark Hoffenberg and First Chicago behind her, you’ve got to admit that they’ll generate quite a bit of momentum—Jack Cavanaugh is going to have a much more painful reality to confront than the fact that his daughter no longer cares to be a shareholder.”
    “Do you really think that they’ll be able to find a buyer?” asked Daniel, struggling to reach the plastic water jug on his bedside. I poured him a glass and handed it to him. He drank it while I pretended not to notice how badly his hands shook and how much the simple task of raising a glass to his lips seemed to exhaust him.
    “That depends,” I said. “Granted, I do agree with you that the piece in this morning’s Journal is a clever negotiating tactic—a way to light a fire under the rest of the Cavanaughs and possibly push up the price. After all, there aren’t a tremendous number of investors who’ll find a minority interest in a family-owned company an attractive opportunity. But there’s been quite a bit of renewed interest in manufacturing companies and Superior Plating is an attractive operation. For someone who’s not looking to make a killing in the short term, someone who might be looking to gain control of the company in five or ten years, it could be a smart move. I’ve got to tell you, Daniel. I have a bad feeling about this. If Jack doesn’t get on the stick and at least talk to Lydia about this in a realistic way, he’s going to be sitting across the table from some stranger who owns twelve percent of his company.”
    “Don’t worry. He’ll come around.