Jake understood. Derrick had his pride. Pride in what he had achieved so far, pride in the fact that he was working hard to provide a good future for himself and his family. Like his mother, Derrick would not accept handouts. ‘I don’t deserve it. What will people think?’
Jake had anticipated this reaction. ‘People will think:whathas Mr Campbell-Ross seen in Derrick that is so special?’
Derrick stared long and hard at Mr Campbell-Ross.
‘Prove me right, Derrick. Think of it as a new kind of incentive scheme; now you’ve got it – you want to keep it?’
Derrick looked at the card, looked at Jake, and then thrust the key card in his pocket. He looked Jake in the eye. ‘You bet I do,’ he said with a self-assurance way beyond his years.
Jake smiled. ‘I’ll be watching with interest to see how long it takes you to make the move upstairs,’ said Jake referring to that very top apartment and the position as the head of the Ross Corporation. He wasn’t joking.
Jake was well aware that he could have arranged another apartment on a lower floor. It wouldn’t be as spacious, but Derrick’s family would have managed well enough. At any one time, there were always several vacant apartments as people moved to postings abroad and others returned. Some employees, for personal reasons, did not want to live in the building at all.
Jake knew of one such person, of one such apartment, and he most definitely thought it might be taking it a bit too far to give Derrick that one. William’s apartment, the massive sprawling apartment on the very top floor, had been vacant since the building was built. Grace had wanted to remain living in her London home. He’d heard that she’d told William,an apartment is far too vulgar, darling.
William, who had never spent a single night of his marriage apart from his wife, had had little choice but to accept that they would not be moving in. William had hoped that in time she would change her mind, but she never had. That left Marcus, who was currently the de-facto head of the corporation.
Jake knew that Marcus could move upstairs, but that wasn’t going to happen either. William would not allow it in the current circumstances; not with the rumours swirling aroundabout Marcus and his late-night escapades – rumours that Jake imagined the family, and the company, were hoping they could keep quiet. A company was built on its reputation. As a stock-market listed company, confidence and market sentiment – good or bad – could send share values soaring or plummeting. With William apparently still at the helm, that confidence was still steadfast. If Marcus were to move into the top position and the top floor, there was no telling where things might lead – and everyone on the board knew it.
Jake had no doubt that the apartment on the fiftieth floor would remain empty for many more years to come; perhaps until William and Marcus had both stepped down, and a new successor had been found.
Jake eyed Derrick. It was unthinkable today, the Ross Corporation not being run by a family member, but over time, things would change. Over time, it was possible that the Ross Corporation would go the way of other monolithic companies, where not a single descendant of the original founder worked in the business.
The lift door opened in the foyer on the ground floor.
Before leaving the lift, Jake watched Derrick wiping his eyes dry with his sleeve. If Derrick’s two brothers were so inclined, perhaps in the future the three brothers would be occupying those three apartments on the top two floors. Jake smiled at the thought.
Chapter 19
Jake took Derrick to the front desk.
The concierge stood up and wished Jake a good morning. Then his eyes roved to Derrick, registering his tear-streaked face.
‘Derrick – what have you done?’ The concierge turned back to Mr Campbell-Ross without even giving Derrick a chance to speak. ‘Mr Campbell-Ross, I want to sincerely apologise for anything Derrick—’
Jake held up his hand and produced two envelopes from his jacket pocket, one for the concierge and the other to be handed to Aubrey on his immediate return. They both contained identical letters, which he had written that morning. They were letters of authority giving Derrick, his mother Joyce and his brothers Joseph and Matthew the right to reside in Apartment Two on the forty-ninth floor. The lease was now in Derrick’s name. It was imperative that Aubrey was made aware of this.
As the concierge opened his letter, Jake’s thoughts drifted back to the night before Christmas Eve, almost seven months earlier, when Aubrey had been helping an ex-employee to vacate his apartment. For some reason, the employee had been fired from his job at the Ross Corporation, which was most unusual.Jake didn’t know the circumstances, and didn’t ask. All he knew was that part of Aubrey’s remit was to escort someone who could no longer reside in an apartment out of the building. In other words, kick them out.
Strangely, Jake remembered his name – Mr Beale. ‘This one went quietly,’ Jake recalled Aubrey saying. He wondered in passingwhat had happened to the man. The concierge confirmed that nobody had been ‘helped’ out of their apartment for some time, which was exactly what Jake would not want to hear had happened to Derrick in his absence. This was what made Aubrey receiving his letter so important.
Given the chance, Jake was sure Derrick would move heaven and earth to earn the right to be in Apartment Two on the forty-ninth floor. Jake would be watching the future of the Ross Corporation with interest, and the future of Derrick in particular, as he had a strong feeling that the future success of Derrick and the company would become inextricably linked.
‘Bloody hell!’ The concierge had finished reading his letter. His eyes darted to Derrick, a look of disbelief fixed on his craggy features.
Although Jake had left an identical letter for Aubrey, he said, ‘Please tell Aubrey Jones the news, the next time you see him.’
‘That I will, Mr Campbell-Ross.’
Jake anticipated that when word spread of the new occupant on the forty-ninth floor, there would be a lot more confusion, perhaps envy, certainly anger. Jake expected that Derrick, taking up his new junior post, would not have an easy time of it at the offices of the Ross Corporation; his peers would resent him, his superiors would distrust him, and Derrick’s workload would most probably double or triple as a result.
It wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, that was for sure. Jake imagined that some of Derrick’s peers would be waiting for him to fall flat on his face. But Jake knew that Derrickwasn’t afraid of hard work. Derrick wasn’t afraid of an unkind word. Experience had taught him there were far scarier things out there in the real world to be afraid of if he failed. In the meantime, there wasn’t anything anybody could do about Jake’s decision to give Derrick the apartment.
Jake, along with Marcus and William, were majority shareholders in the company. He co-owned the building, and the apartment. That hadn’t changed. He could do with it what he wanted – and he liked Derrick. Jake was well aware that he was disrupting the status-quo; he was turning things upside down. But the ship was already dangerously listing; no one was at the helm. Two of the three captains had already effectively jumped ship – Jake to the classroom, William to the golf course – and the third was killing himself slowly. At the rate Marcus was going, Jake doubted there would be any Marcus juniors in the future to take the helm, even if they wanted to.
He thought that it might surprise Ross employees to learn that if anybody could guarantee their futures, and the future of the company, it was a young man who had the greatest reason of all to keep his apartment, to keep the Ross Corporation afloat – his family. That was all that mattered; keeping them safe, keeping them alive. Jake could think of no greater motivator than that.
Over the years, the Ross Corporation had given Jake so much; it had guaranteed his future. He didn’t want to just abandon ship without putting something back. But for the past few months, since he’d left, he had racked his brain for what that might be. Now the answer – the future of the company – was standing right beside him.
