My Name Was Banned, But My Success Was Unstoppable novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Meet Kerensa Wren

At the dinner table she introduces herself as the lender in front of the board; Thaddeus says he has called the police.

On Thanksgiving, at five minutes to six, the outer gate opened for my thumb again.

Torsten stood beside it in his uniform with his hands behind his back.

"Your print is still good," he said.

"You told them you deleted it."

"I told them a lot of things."

He did not look at me as I passed.

I walked up the long drive in a black suit with my hair pinned back.

I carried the same leather folder.

This time I rang the bell.

A housemaid opened the door and stared at me.

She had been in the kitchen when I was twenty-three.

She did not say my name.

"Ms. Wren," she said, in a whisper.

"They're in the dining room."

I handed her my coat.

I crossed the hall that had thrown me out the night before.

The long table was set for eight.

My father sat at one end, with my mother at his right.

Two men from the company's board sat across from them, and the finance chief sat beside them with sweat on his lip.

Lydia had the seat at my mother's other side.

She wore a green dress and a small gold cross.

Edgar stood at the head of the table with a glass of wine, in the middle of a speech.

"On behalf of my family," he was saying, "we are honored to welcome the person who has shown such trust in us."

He turned around.

The glass stopped halfway to his mouth.

"Ms. Wren," I said.

I held out my hand.

"Kerensa Wren."

Nobody breathed.

Edgar's face went the color of the tablecloth.

"You," he said.

"On Wednesday you told your guards you didn't know me," I said.

"I'm glad. It makes the introductions easier."

My mother stood so fast her chair fell over.

"What is she doing in this house?"

"Mom," Edgar said.

"I invited Ms. Wren. I didn't know who she was."

I lowered my hand.

He had not taken it.

He was shaking.

"Please sit," I said to the room.

"Dinner's getting cold."

"I will not sit at a table with that woman," my mother said.

"Then stand," I said.

"But the board will want to hear what I came to say, and so will you."

I opened the folder.

The two men from the board looked at each other.

I read the sentence I had practiced on the plane.

"In October, Wren Holdings bought the mortgage on this house and every outstanding loan of Thaxton Group, sixty-two million dollars in all, and as of Monday every dollar of it is due."

The finance chief put his hand over his eyes.

One of the board members said a word I won't write down.

My father didn't move.

He looked at Lydia first, again, and then at the folder.

Lydia rose from her chair.

She came around the table with her arms already open.

"Kerensa," she said.

Her eyes were wet.

"You've been doing this the whole time?"

"Yes."

"Oh, I'm so proud of you. You built something. I always knew you would."

She hugged me.

She smelled of vanilla and wine.

"We'll fix this," she whispered against my ear.

"We'll fix all of it. I'll talk to them."

I stepped back.

Her face was kind and flushed and glad for me.

I had loved that face for nineteen years.

It was the only one at the table that wasn't angry.

"Thank you," I said.

"I mean it."

"You could have just called," she said, softly.

"I tried to," I said.

"I was blacklisted."

"I know," Lydia said.

"I'm so sorry. I tried to tell them."

My father pushed back his chair.

"That will do," he said.

It was the first time he had spoken to me in five years.

He did not say my name.

"Sit down, Thaddeus," one of the board members said.

"No," my father said.

"I will not be lectured in my own house by a thief."

He took a phone out of his jacket and held it up.

"I knew you'd come back one day," he said.

"I told the police you might."

"You never reported a theft," I said.

"I'm reporting it tonight."

He turned toward the dining room door.

"Officers," he said.

"Come in."

Two uniformed police stepped into the room.

One of them held handcuffs.

The finance chief took his hand off his eyes.

My mother sat back down very slowly and folded her napkin.

Lydia put a hand on my arm.

"Don't be scared," she said.

"It'll be all right."

I looked at the two men in uniform.

I looked at the folder in my hands.

"Go ahead," I said.

"Ask him what I stole."

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