After My Fiancé Humiliated Me, I Ruined Him novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Loan

"Bought it?" Julien said. "Who buys a loan?"

"A fund, monsieur. I can't say more on the telephone. Can you come in this morning?"

"We'll be there at ten," I said.

There was a pause on the line.

"And who is this?"

"His partner."

Julien looked at me.

I hadn't meant to say it.

I didn't take it back.

The bank was on the boulevard Haussmann, all marble and brass and nobody smiling.

Solène met us on the steps. She'd come straight from her apartment with her hair still wet.

"Who would buy a loan on a house that can't pay it?" she said.

"Someone who wants the house," I said.

The banker was a careful man in a gray suit with a careful little office.

He'd known Julien's father.

He shook all our hands and wouldn't sit down until we did.

"I'm very sorry," he said. "It was out of my hands. It came from upstairs."

"Who bought it?" Julien said.

The banker slid a single sheet across the desk.

The fund's name meant nothing to me. Under it were three directors.

Solène read the names and made a small sound.

"I know them," she said. "They've been to dinner at my apartment. They drink Julien's wine and talk about yachts."

"Who are they?"

"Ashton's friends. His investors. The ones he's always flying to London to see."

Julien turned to the banker. "And the terms? The loan's due June thirtieth. They can't change that."

The banker winced.

"They've invoked a clause about the house's accounts, monsieur. The new due date is the thirty-first of May."

"May thirty-first," Solène said. "The day after my engagement gala."

"Fourteen million," the banker said, "by close of business that day. Or they can force the sale of the house's assets. The name, the stock, the building."

Nobody said anything.

Julien's hand was flat on the desk. I watched the knuckles go pale.

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