Chapter 20: Max
“How bad is this?” I walked into the room with my legal team already surrounding the table.
“You’re the principal investor, so it isn’t good. You don’t technically own the company—that is probably the only good part of this.” The lead attorney for the firm, Carmen King, opened a folder and pushed it towards me. “This is the FDA report. It was recently sent to Energy Enhanced and West End Marketing.
“Why are they doing an FDA report now? This product has been on the market for years...” I sat down at the table and read it.
“It’s the new advertising campaign.” Carmen replied with a sigh. “Energy Enhanced was previously marketed as an energy drink infused with vitamins, so the testing standards were different. Once they started trying to switch the marketing to a vitamin drink, there were more in-depth tests done.”
“I thought the marketing hadn’t really started yet...” I flipped the FDA report to the second page.
“It hasn’t, but they already changed their logo and the wording on the can to match the new campaign. They’re using the name Vitamins Enhanced now. They were hoping to have it all in place by the time the campaign launched. Some soccer mom in Ohio bought it for her son and he collapsed after drinking—three cans.” She sighed again.
“Three cans?” I felt my blood boiling. “Three fucking cans? Who the fuck does that!?”
“Well nobody would do that with an energy drink—well, if they did they would expect the consequences I suppose. It’s a different story with a vitamin drink, but the damage is done.” She closed the folder. “The family has lawyered up so a lawsuit is coming.”
“Does Energy Enhanced have insurance to cover that?” I looked up from the report.
“Not this kind.” One of the other lawyers spoke. “They have product liability insurance, but there’s a clause in the contract that requires them to pull the product if they get a report like this. Failure to do so voids that policy.”
“So why didn’t they do it? They should have read the report!” My anger started to flare again.
“The company is fucked no matter what and they won’t recover from this, but I’m sure the official answer will be to put the blame on someone. That’s what West End Marketing is doing.” Carmen picked up her cell phone.
“Wait.” I held up my hand. “What do you mean West End Marketing is putting the blame on someone?”
“The team leader.” She scrolled. “Yeah, CNN just updated the article with an official statement from West End Marketing. Someone named Abby Grant. They’re saying she was responsible for reviewing the report and failed to do so.”
“Fuck. I have to go.” I ran towards the door as quickly as I could.
I
had been short and rude with Abby that morning when I should have been understanding. Energy Enhanced was a small part of my portfolio and I was going to lose some money, but that would be about it. My name might make it into an article somewhere as an investor, but I had little say in the day to day operations. The account was Abby’s whole life. It was the first time she had been trusted to be a leader and the first time she had landed a major account on her own. I was sure they had fired her or sent her home, so I went there first. I found the door barely closed and Abby on the couch with her cat curled up beside her.
“Let’s go.” I reached out for her hand.
“I don’t want to go anywhere...” She pulled away.
“You can’t stay here.” I knelt beside her. “Your name is in the news. Reporters are going to be showing up soon. We need to get you out of here. Trust me, I’ve been through this sort of thing before. You don’t want to be the hottest story in town.”
“What about Sebastian?” She rubbed her cat’s head and he glared at me.
“I guess I’m adopting a cat today.” I smiled and shrugged.
Benjamin was thrilled to hear that his new best friend, Abby, would be moving in. He was even more thrilled to find out we were taking in a cat. Sebastian seemed a little leery of Benjamin at first, but after he had explored his new house and found it to his liking, he actually curled up next to Benjamin while he played with some toys. I sent Ms. Ruth out for some necessities and sat down on the bed next to Abby. I could tell she was still disheveled from the events of the day, but I tried to calm her down. No one would come looking for her at my place, so she was safe. All I wanted to do in that moment was protect her and make sure nobody could hurt her. It didn’t matter to me if she had read the report or not, I was going to be in her corner.
“I TALKED TO THE LAWYERS today.” A week had passed since the scandal first made the news and Abby was starting to act like herself again.
“Yeah? What did they say?” She looked out from the kitchen and I saw Benjamin sitting on the counter watching her make dinner.
“It looks like West End Marketing is going to be in the clear. The lawsuit is going to be directly against Energy Enhanced. They obviously wanted to name everyone they could, but your company never launched the advertisement campaign, so they can’t be held accountable for what happened to that boy.” I leaned over the counter.
“That’s good, I guess...” I heard her sigh.
“Well, good and bad. West End Marketing is up for sale now—or was. They’re under new management.” I smiled as I watched her.
“What?” She stopped tending to the food and looked at me. “What do you mean?”