They Mocked His Old Car, His Clothes, His Pie… Then His Granddaughter Had Enough
Chapter 4
Walter kept selling pies.
It became almost comical.
People from the company visited the market.
Lawyers.
Accountants.
Executives.
All dressed in expensive clothes.
All asking Walter what he wanted to do with the company.
Walter gave them the same answer.
“I want to understand it first.”
He spent the week visiting warehouses.
Factories.
Distribution centers.
Farms.
He wanted to see how the company actually operated.
Not how it looked on paper.
Lily went with him.
At the first processing plant, an operations manager tried to impress him.
“Our quarterly efficiency is up nine percent.”
Walter looked around.
“How many employees?”
“Four hundred.”
“How many are leaving?”
The manager paused.
“Why?”
“Because your people look exhausted.”
The manager smiled awkwardly.
“Turnover is normal.”
Walter shook his head.
“Not if you’re doing it right.”
Lily smiled.
She was beginning to understand why Rose had trusted him.
At a farm owned by the company, Walter met a sixty-year-old farmer named George.
George shook his hand.
“Rose used to come here herself.”
Walter looked surprised.
“She did?”
“Every year.”
“What did she talk about?”
“Prices.”
“Of course.”
George laughed.
“No.”
He smiled.
“She asked whether my grandchildren were doing well.”
Walter went silent.
That evening, he asked Jonathan:
“How many farmers still remember Rose?”
“Almost all of them.”
“How many remember the current board?”
Jonathan didn’t answer.
Walter understood.
The company had lost something.
Not money.
Trust.
That night, he found a troubling report.
A group of suppliers had been denied contract renewals.
All of them were family-owned.
All of them had declined to sell their businesses to Franklin Reed’s packaging company.
Walter looked at Lily.
“He’s squeezing them.”
“Why?”
“To make them desperate.”
“For what?”
“To buy them cheap.”
Lily stared.
“So he wants control.”
“Yes.”
“Of the suppliers?”
“And the board.”
Jonathan called.
“There is more.”
“What?”
“Franklin has been using company resources to finance acquisitions.”
Walter frowned.
“That is illegal.”
“Yes.”
“Proof?”
“Not enough yet.”
Walter looked at the report.
“Then find it.”
Jonathan hesitated.
“There is one problem.”
“What?”
“The head of internal compliance reports to Franklin.”
Walter leaned back.
“How many people know?”
“Maybe five.”
“Then we tell no one.”
Lily looked at him.
“Grandpa, are you sure?”
Walter nodded.
“I’ve spent seventy-one years being underestimated.”
He smiled.
“Maybe it’s time I use that.”
The following Saturday, Franklin walked past Walter’s table.
He picked up a pie.
“Still selling these?”
“Yes.”
Franklin laughed.
“You really never change.”
Walter smiled.
“No.”
Franklin walked away.
Lily leaned toward her grandfather.
“You’re going to surprise him.”
Walter looked at the old truck.
“No.”
He smiled.
“I’m going to surprise everybody.”
