"What's wrong, Nathan?" Lincoln asked. "Are you refusing me?"
Everyone watched Nathan with cold eyes. All the sympathy he had enjoyed before Lincoln's arrival had dissipated. As much as they might have agreed with him about what they should do, there was nobody in the world who they respected more than Lincoln. Whatever he decided, they would do. Nathan had made the mistake of being openly disobedient toward the one person in the family against whom disobedience was unforgivable.
Nathan was acutely aware of the change in his circumstances. He immediately became flustered. "Grandfather," he said pleadingly. "I was wrong. I didn't mean to—"
"To do what?" Lincoln snapped back coldly. "To encourage your family to start bickering among themselves over pennies and trinkets?"
Nathan's forehead started to gleam with little beads of sweat. He avoided Lincoln's gaze. It seemed to him as if his grandfather was staring straight into his soul.
The housekeeper, who had followed Lincoln into the room and stayed by the door, came forward. She had worked at Fairview Island for as long as Lincoln had owned it, and she was fiercely loyal to him. "You need to learn some respect," she cried. "Your grandfather built everything around you. And now you're trying to destroy it. How dare you?"
Nathan felt the cold and disapproving eyes of the entire family come down on him. No one would come to his defense now. He had overplayed his hand.
He walked forward toward Lincoln with his back bent and his eyes on the floor. He didn't dare say a word. He knew that if he said or did the wrong thing even one more time, there might be calls for his expulsion from the family. Everything would be for nothing. He would be penniless.
Lincoln looked at him in disgust. It wouldn't be enough to simply punish Nathan. He needed to make him see the error of his way of thinking, or his pessimistic attitude would spread like a disease among the family. It would split them apart. Nathan needed to be brought under control somehow, but the exact method would have to devised later. There were more pressing matters to discuss.
The problem of the tumbling stock price had already been solved. It had required a large chunk of their emergency funds, but Lincoln had been able to stop the value of company stock from falling any further and provided the company with some extra liquidity at the same time. It was a start, but it wouldn't be nearly enough to get them out of trouble. The next step was to salvage their existing business relationships.
Lincoln once again gestured to Nathan to take a seat, and then he turned to Gideon. "Have we heard from the Baldwins?" he asked.
"I've spoken to several of the companies controlled by them," Gideon answered. "They all deny that they have any hidden motive for ending their contracts with us." He sighed. "The Chapmans say the same thing. But we've lost our partnerships with over a hundred different companies so far. It can't be a coincidence. Someone influential must be pulling the strings."
Lincoln nodded pensively. "If anyone has an opinion on what we should do, please speak up," he said.
"I think we should ride it out," Flora said assertively. "The fundamentals of our business are strong enough to make it through a rough patch. We might want to think about streamlining the business a little, but if we persist, people will want to make deals with us again soon enough."
Many nodded in agreement with her words, and Lincoln's eyes shone with approval. They all wanted to believe that she was right, and they thought that she might be.
Marion, by contrast, glowered at Flora with a fierce envy in her eyes. All the drama with Alex had improved her and Marcus' favor with Lincoln, and Marcus had been given many more responsibilities in family matters. It was one of the reasons why Nathan had become so bold in his desire to lead the family one day. What mattered most to Marion was that she had come out on top in her personal competition with Flora.
But there had also been signs that their improved status was on shaky ground. Lincoln continued to entrust Gideon with many responsibilities, and it was well-known that he wanted to contain Nathan's ambition.
Another troubling sign was that he seemed remorseful about cutting Alex off from the family. He was unlikely to reverse his decision, but he might change his mind if kept speaking out like this.
Tristan cleared his throat to speak. "Isn't there anything more proactive we can do?" he asked. "Shouldn't we at least try to get our contacts in law enforcement to clear up this mess for us?"
"I've already tried that," Lincoln said. "Nobody would take my call. Not even Director Abbott."
The whole room went silent. It was very bad news, indeed. They were not only losing their business partners, but it seemed that many of their other contacts were abandoning them as well.
"Who is behind this?" one of Alex's younger cousins roared. "Whoever's doing this to us, we should get out there and destroy them."
"Calm down," Lincoln urged them with a weary voice. "I know who it is. It's the Mitchell family."
The mention of the name caused an uproar among the entire family. They had been competing with the Mitchells for a long time, but there had never been outright hostility between the two families.
Tristan slapped his thigh. "So this is the work of Dominic Mitchell?" he said. "And to think, I had dinner with him just last month."
The atmosphere in the room grew more and more aggravated as everyone started muttering among themselves. Lincoln was at a loss. Flora's suggestion to trust in the strength of their business was appealing, but it came with huge risks. The various subsidiaries and regional departments of the company were in the hands of highly competent people, but they were business managers.
If the situation grew into something more explosive than a mere competitive business environment, which it already had, they wouldn't know what to do.
Suddenly, a young woman's voice called out from one of the corners of the room. "I have a proposal," she said.
Everyone went silent, and turned to see who had made the soft-spoken but assertive outburst. It was Nelly. She had been sitting in the corner the whole time, and she hadn't dared to speak until now.
With the eyes of the entire Ambrose family upon her, she braced herself for their reaction to what she was about to suggest. "Grandfather," she began in a soft tone. "Alex has become very capable. And he would help us in a heartbeat. I think you should ask him to come back to us."