Saving Her Billionaire

“You sound so miserable about it,” said Nate’s mother. “Isn’t it what you’ve always wanted?”

Nate felt a surge of anger at that. Did she really think that running his father’s company had been what he wanted? Was she really that myopic, that unwilling to see something that was before her very eyes? How could she be so utterly blind?

Of course he didn’t want to run his father’s company. Of course he didn’t want to do that because it had nothing to do with him. He was not the person that had dedicated his life to the company, he at least wanted the option of looking elsewhere.

Nate realized that he was being a little insensitive. He did want to run the company, it was not as if he was being forced into something he hated. However, at the same time, he just resented how everyone expected this of him. He resented how he would never get credit for taking up his father’s job. He hated the fact that, for the rest of his life, he would be living in his father’s shadow and would never really be seen as someone on his own. He would always be compared to his father. Every decision he made, everything he ever did, everything would be viewed through a lens, the lens being his father’s history.

He looked around. He was trying to avoid his mother’s gaze but he knew that it was futile.

“You’re going to have to answer me sometime, Nate,” said his mother. “Now tell me. Are you miserable about having to run your father’s company?”

“No,” said Nate, a little bitterly. “I have wanted this responsibility. I can do it. Can you tell me about how the stocks would be divided?”

“You get half of your father’s stocks,” said Nate’s mother. “Me and your sister Julia split the other half.”

“That doesn’t seem fair,” said Nate. “You should get half and me and Julia should split the other half.”

“Your father probably thought that the person that is running the company should be the majority shareholder,” said Nate’s mother. “I agree with him. I want you to be able to do this properly, Nate.”

“What do you mean?” asked Nate. He sensed a tone. His mother had been thinking something and she was about to tell him just now. He wondered what was about to happen. His life was turning into a series of twists and turns, and he was thinking of doing something about it but he did not quite know what. At the moment, all that he could do was go along for the ride.

“You are acting mentally unstable,” said Nate’s mother. “And if you keep behaving this way, we can’t let you run the company.”

“What?” said Nate, “You can’t do that. You can’t just say that I can’t run the company, it was what Dad wanted, it was what he wanted Mom! Are you seriously going to go against his wishes the very next day after he died?”

“Relax, Nate,” said his mother firmly. “You need to calm down. I’m not saying that you are being cut out completely. I am just saying that in your current mental state you need to be away from the company. You need to fix yourself. Your father’s death was a crisis situation. It was a test, in a way, and you failed completely. You were not able to do your father’s memory justice. The moment something went wrong you went out and did something stupid. You got drunk, did God knows what else, and to top it all off you crashed your car.”

“My father had just died!” Nate yelled. He couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe that his reaction to the death of his father was being seen as an example of how he would handle a crisis situation. He couldn’t believe that his mother was behaving this way, his own mother. How could life possible be this unfair? How could anyone think that the way someone reacts to the death of their father would be the way that they would react when something went wrong in a corporate setting?

“My father was somebody that I was passionate about,” said Nate. “My father was someone I loved. I was emotionally invested in his life, you know, it’s not like I would be emotionally stable after something happened that ended the presence of this man in my life.”

“Are you saying that you are not emotionally invested in the company?” asked Nate’s mother. “Are you not passionate about it? If this is the case, you might not be fit to run the company at all.”

Nate was taken aback. Was he passionate about the company? Was he emotionally invested? His mind was stormy and tempestuous. He did not know what to think.

“Fine,” said Nate. “I handled dad’s death really badly, I agree. I should have handled it a lot better than I did. I should have handled it in a way that fit my status and my future role as the head of the company that this family earns its daily bread from. You are right mother.”

There was no small amount of venom in Nate’s voice, but this seemed lost on his mother for some reason. She seemed unable, or perhaps unwilling, to think about the fact that her son was being venomous towards her.

“What do you think we should do?” said Nate. “You’re clearly the one calling the shots here. I want to run the company. What can I do to prove to you that I am worthy of this great honor, mother?”

“You need to do something to help stabilize your mental state,” said Nate’s mother. “You need to see somebody. A counselor, maybe, I don’t know. You need to talk to a professional, Nate, and I need to know from that professional’s point of view if you would be fit to run one of the most profitable and valuable companies in the world. You’ll be in the hospital for about a month, but after this month you have to start seeing a counselor regularly, Nate, at least twice a week but ideally three or four times a week.”

“Fine,” said Nate. “I’ll go see a counselor. Are you happy, mother?”

“I am,” said Nate’s mother. She smiled and ran her hand across his forehead. There were tears in her eyes again. Nate felt his anger evaporate.

“Mom,” he said, stroking her face. “Mom, I agreed. I’ll go see a counselor.”

“Yes,” said Nate’s mother. “But now that business is out of the way I can feel what I’m really feeling. I thought I had lost you, Nate. I thought that the day after my husband died I would lose my son as well, my first born. I thought that I would lose everything in the process.”

Nate hugged his mother tight. His resolve was firm now. If it was the last thing he was going to do, he was going to get better. He was going to go see a counselor. He would lead the company into a golden age. He would do everything in his power to make things right again.