After His Betrayal, I Became the Woman He Couldn't Afford novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Real Terms

Rafe offers Tarrant Supply a loan at real terms, and Sylvie insists on signing it herself. Brooks and Sierra are on the pavement outside the warehouse with cameras, calling her unwell.

The office of Tarrant Supply smelled of coffee and cardboard, as it had every day of my life.

My father sat behind his desk with the bank's letter flat in front of him.

He had read it so many times the fold had gone soft.

"Fourteen days," he said. "Three million dollars, Sylvie."

"They can't call it. We've never missed a payment."

"The guarantee was the condition. No guarantee, no loan." He took off his glasses. "It's in the fine print. I should have read it harder."

"You read it. You trusted a man who stood up at my engagement dinner and called you family."

He looked at me, tired and proud.

"Then I'll sell the old warehouse land," he said. "There's an offer on it. It'd cover the loan."

"Dad, that land is the only thing Mom's name is still on."

"I know."

I sat down in the chair across from him.

For one long minute we looked at the letter together.

Then I took the card out of my bag.

Stanton Lane Capital. A phone number. Nothing else.

"Who's that?" Dad asked.

"A man who didn't clap last night."

I called, and a woman answered on the first ring and said, "Mr. Stanton is expecting you. Can you come at eleven?"

I had not given my name.

Stanton Lane Capital took up the top four floors of a glass tower on the harbor.

The elevator opened on a long, quiet room with nobody in it but one man at a window.

He turned around.

In daylight he looked about thirty-six, with short dark hair and gray eyes that did not hurry.

"Ms. Tarrant."

"Your assistant knew who I was."

"The whole city knows who you are," Rafe Stanton said. "A man made sure of it."

"Is that why you handed me a card? Because I'm famous?"

"I handed you a card because I watched the whole video. And I watched Brooks Kingsbury while it played."

He nodded to a chair.

I stayed standing.

"What do you want?" I said.

"Plainly?"

"Please."

"I want Brooks Kingsbury to find out what it feels like to owe someone who doesn't need him." He said it without any heat. "You can be that someone, or you can be the one he steps on this week. I'd rather it were the first."

"I don't know you."

"No. You don't."

"And you want me to trust a banker I met at a valet stand."

"I want you to read something."

He put a single sheet on the glass desk.

It was a loan offer. Three million dollars to Tarrant Supply, enough to pay the bank off in full.

I read it twice, looking for the trick.

Nine percent. Two years. Secured against the company's receivables.

"This is a bad deal," I said.

"It's a real deal."

"It's nine percent."

"The bank gave you six because Brooks's father was standing behind it." He shrugged. "Nobody is standing behind you here. That's the price of owing nobody a favor."

I kept reading.

At the bottom was a line for a signature.

It said TARRANT SUPPLY, by Clifford Tarrant.

"My father doesn't sign this," I said.

Rafe's eyes moved up to mine.

"Your father owns the company."

"He owns the company. I run the purchasing and the books. If this goes sideways, I want to be the one who answers for it."

"That's a lot to take on for a father who just lost his guarantee."

"It's my fault he lost it," I said. "So I'm the one who's going to sign."

Something changed in his face.

It was not quite a smile.

"Then change it," he said, and held out a pen.

I crossed out my father's name and wrote my own.

When I looked up, he was watching me with the same flat patience as at the party.

"You didn't ask why I'm doing this," he said.

"You told me. You want him owing someone."

"And?"

"And you didn't say the rest," I said. "That's fine. I'll find out."

He took the page back.

"Good," he said. "That's what I'd do."

His phone buzzed on the desk.

He glanced at it and went very still.

"What?" I said.

"Your father's company has visitors."

He turned the screen toward me.

It was a live video from the street outside Tarrant Supply.

A camera crew stood on the pavement by the loading dock.

In front of them were Brooks, in a dark suit and a sad face, and Sierra, holding his arm.

The caption below read: KINGSBURY HEIR SPEAKS ABOUT FIANCÉE'S "BREAKDOWN".

Brooks lifted a hand to the microphones.

"She's not well," he said. "We just want her to get help."

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