Chapter 9: No Gifts

"I'll have my lawyer buy it through a third party," Cain said. "Dolan will never know it was me."

It was seven in the morning, and we were parked outside my building with the partition up.

He had not slept. I could tell, because his tie was perfectly straight.

"No, thank you," I said.

"It's a hundred and forty thousand dollars. It's a rounding error."

"It's my rounding error."

"Ms. Bell."

"Clause seven. No gifts beyond wardrobe."

"It's not a gift. It's an advance on your severance."

"My severance is ninety thousand. The building is a hundred and forty. You'd be advancing me fifty thousand dollars I haven't earned."

"Then it's a loan."

"At what interest?"

"None."

"Then it's a gift with a payment schedule."

He closed his mouth.

I took out the notebook to make a point.

"Fine," he said. "It's an investment. I buy the building and you run it. You pay me rent."

"For my father's store."

"At a fair rate."

"What's a fair rate for the thing my father painted his name on?"

He didn't have a number for that.

He looked at the window and then at me, and for once he didn't hide that he was angry.

"You are the most stubborn person I have ever employed."

"Thank you."

"It wasn't a compliment."

"I took it as one."

Keep reading free with an account. Start She Played His Perfect Girlfriend, He Couldn't Let Her Go from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.