"The worst mistake is giving up (You are part of everything)" Prologue
The worst mistake is giving up (You are part of everything)
Prologue
Sunlight was mirrored in the five computer screens placed around the huge office space that was the brain of Padalecki Corporate Consulting & Marketing. The light filtering through the half open blinds casted everything in a yellow tint; the walls, the screens, even the printouts had a glow they didn’t deserve.
It was a warm day outside, sunny, cheerful even but Gerald Padalecki didn’t have the mind neither the nerve to see all that. More important things were whirling around in his head. He didn’t know if any of those ideas in there made him crazier than he already was or just one of those ruthless businessmen he had never wanted to become.
The numbers on the screens said a lot but could not indicate the real dimension of Harris’ latest move against Padalecki Corporate Consulting & Marketing. PCCM had survived its fair share of attempted hostile takeovers. Harris though had been very resilient and had actually shown an endurance searching its match among the big Texan marketing companies.
Each attack, whether through the stocks or through affiliated companies, had left a dent in the once complete armor. The company lost more valuable clients, employees and money due to the actual attacks and their consequences than Gerald Padalecki liked to admit.
And it was no secret anymore that PCCM was on the edge of being taken over by one of the most powerful companies the state or even the country had to offer. Not to mention that it was known to be less than appreciative of its employees and more focused on profit efficiency.
Gerald, or Jerry like his family and close friends had taken to call him, tried to find the positive aspects in all the scenarios he had played out in his mind over the last weeks. They were losing stocks and money all over the place, bleeding them really.
It almost seemed like they were already one of those wrecks stranded on the beaches of Pass Cavallo. Leaks everywhere and Jerry had no idea where they had come from. They had good clients, good contracts and weren’t short of work, far from it even.
It was kind of ironic that a company known for its diverse marketing campaigns and strategies to save other companies was now on the very edge of being a welfare case itself.
The last ten years had been hard and stressful, filled with work, work and even more work but Gerald Padalecki never regretted having taken over the company before. Right now though he tried to find a good reason to keep on fighting.
This company was his life but sometimes he thought it was too much. Not only for himself but for his family as well. He knew he mostly had been absent during the important years of his children’s childhood and even during their process of growing up.
Jeff was already married and settled into his own practice, he had his own life now and Jerry was far from taking him away from it. Megan was just starting college and considering her vehement reminders that she would in no case ever work for her daddy, it wasn’t an option anyway. Jerry could admit defeat if he had to.
That left Jared.
Jared, who currently was on the way to meet up with him.
Jared, who had finished college with top honors and had received really great letters of recommendation from his year in the UK. Who had worked voluntarily at a vet clinic after finishing his degree.
Jared, who had always followed his footsteps business- and study-wise. But who, and that was a constant topic of discussion between Jerry and his wife, was much more a person of art, creativity and working minds.
Jared wasn’t someone who could be locked away in an office, however brilliant he was, and do great things while being in there. Of all his children Jared was the one with the ability to work on intuition as much as on knowing the facts.
Jared’s way of thinking and working had always amazed Jerry. He knew that his youngest son wasn’t really interested in the business world but wouldn’t really have a problem surviving in it. Jared knew his job, there was a reason why he was top of his class both at UT and at Cambridge.
Jerry knew that Jared had always struggled with this special way, had always tried to fit in and this quest to fit had actually made him an outcast almost everywhere. Jared constantly tried to hide the extraordinary ways his mind seemed to work. But at the same time he was able to solve problems in a time everybody else already needed to just figure out what the problem actually was
It had taken years to actually realize that something was different with Jared. Jerry though suspected that Jared’s mother had always known and just didn’t think there was any need for Jerry to know. Being in the shadow of his big brother, stepping behind the needs of his little sister and trying to stay as much in the background as possible had been the way for Jared to get around.
At school though he often was the center of attention, either because he tried to imitate his brother and got into trouble for that or because he refused to participate at anything lesson related and the teachers called him on it. Jerry didn’t remember how many letters they got when Jared was in middle school or how often they had to meet teachers. He only distinctly remembered Sharon going to many more even, mostly because he was too busy with the company.
It had taken a very observant and motivated high school arts teacher to actually figure out that Jared was just extremely bored. That he just didn’t want to be the focus of attention for being overly intelligent. Imitating his older brother was just his way to refocus the attention.
It had taken Jerry and Sharon a long time to convince Jared to take some tests and to actually make him consider changing schools. It had even taken longer to get Jared to sign up for extra courses and activities to channel his ever growing need to soak up knowledge. They had even tried to make him skip classes and had found a sure way to make Jared shut them out completely. In the end they had settled for Jared having advanced courses while still staying with his grade and graduating like everyone else his age.
Thinking back, thinking about Jared maybe being the one to safe the whole company, made Jerry more than just a little sad. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. He wasn’t supposed to consider asking his son to sacrifice so much, to even consider selling away his son’s future and maybe even his happiness. Because that’s what it was in the end. He was selling Jared for the sake of the company.
It didn’t help that arranged marriages weren’t that uncommon among the circles of the high profile business people and money nobility in Texas. Texas was the only state which still allowed it to be a legal form of corporate merging without having the Monopolies and Mergers Commission at your back.
But that didn’t make it less amoral or sickening to think about it. Jerry didn’t even know what had forced him to even consider such a step, to even go as far as to talk to Jared about it. He knew what the answer would be and that was one more reason to feel less like a father and more like a ruthless shark.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the family lawyer and somewhat of a confidant, hadn’t been all too amused when Jerry had asked him to look into the matter. JD’s stoic silence was an indication that Jerry probably couldn’t count on his support when he talked to Jared. After all it had been him who had set JD up to be some kind of father figure for a son he didn’t really understand and he was sure he would never be able to keep up with.
JD on the other hand had found a way to communicate with Jared no one else had been able to. Jared had latched on the chance to have someone who got him, who could keep up with his mind jumps and who didn’t mind being left behind in the process that was Jared thinking. But JD had never tried to have a say in Jared’s upbringing nor had he ever said anything concerning Jerry’s decisions.
Jerry knew Jared wouldn’t be happy about his plans but he wouldn’t say no. Jared wouldn’t even think about himself and that somehow scared Jerry. He wasn’t sure if he should help his son doing his duty and being unhappy or help him find his way and losing the company in the process.
Was the company even worth it? Jerry tried to reassure himself, that he would call everything off at the first sign that Jared was unhappy. He would not force his son into anything he didn’t want to. Not for the company and not for anything in the world. Then and there though Jerry couldn’t manage to convince himself that he would even be able to see those signs. Not with Jared having his own language Jerry almost never got.
This plan would either save everything or had the possibility to destroy not only the business but his family and his son along the way. This had to work or else he was doomed. Doomed to levels he had never anticipated before, had never thought he’d see himself sink into.
PART 1