Chapter 16: Market Rent

Hal turned up at my shop on Thursday with a paper cup of tea and a very polite face.

"Miss Deming, the foundation board meets at two," he said. "Mr. Buckingham asks if you'd attend."

"Why would I attend?"

"He didn't say. He said you'd want to see it."

"Is he going to beg?"

"I believe he's going to spend money," said Hal.

I went, with Fran behind me in a denim apron because she refused to be left out.

The foundation's conference room had a long walnut table and five directors in leather chairs.

Constance sat at the head in pearls and a navy dress, perfectly calm.

Ansel stood at the far end with a folder.

He had shaved. He had put on the charcoal suit again, and he didn't look at me when I came in.

"Ansel, dear, this is a closed meeting," Constance said.

"Then close it behind her."

"Mr. Buckingham is a donor," said a thin director, nervously. "He has a right to be heard."

"Thank you," said Ansel.

He opened the folder and laid a single sheet on the table.

"Three years ago I pledged forty million dollars to this foundation, in installments," he said. "Eleven million remains."

The directors went still.

"I'm withdrawing it today."

"Ansel," Constance said, and for the first time her voice had a crack in it. "That money funds the children's wing."

"It does. And it'll go on funding it, if this board does two things."

He looked at the thin director.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Billionaire's Fight For Redemption from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.