The CEO and Her Daughter's Secret Father novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Thursday

Octavio Escamilla arrived at 9:58 in a dove-grey suit with a red silk square in his pocket.

Visitors to the yard ride the shuttle from the gate to the office, because forty-ton trucks do not stop for pedestrians.

I watched from the boardroom window as he stepped up into the cab beside the driver.

The driver wore a Lone Star cap pulled low.

Dell had slept three hours and asked for the day shift Thursday without saying why.

I had not asked him why.

The boardroom held a dozen people at a long oak table, and I took my father's chair at the head of it.

My mother sat to my right, in a navy dress, with a domino hidden in her fist.

My uncle Anselmo sat to my left with a leather folder and his big gold watch.

"Ximena," he said, low. "Be gracious. Please."

"I'm always gracious."

"You are always correct. It is not the same."

The door opened, and Escamilla came in.

He was fifty-four, spare and silver-haired, with rimless glasses and a voice so soft that the room leaned in to hear it.

"Ms. Arriaga. Mrs. Arriaga." He bowed to my mother, who did not bow back. "Thank you for receiving me."

"You called," my mother said. "We receive what calls."

Two board members coughed into their coffee.

Escamilla smiled at her.

"I will be brief, since your time is valuable."

He sat, set a single folder on the table, and slid it toward me with two fingers.

"Ten years," he said. "The bonded lane through your warehouse for Escamilla Fresh Imports, at a rate your uncle has already reviewed. And a guarantee on your Frontera Savings line, forty million, so you can buy the Monterrey yard you have wanted since your father died."

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