Part 10
“Why did you date me?”
Grant leaned back.
“I told you.”
“Tell me again without protecting yourself.”
He stared at the lake.
“My father kept a photograph of your mother leaving our factory. It was taken the day Cross Meridian announced the restructuring. You were in the back seat of her car.”
Vivian remembered none of it.
“I recognized you at the museum,” he continued. “I had followed your career after you joined Cross Meridian. When you left the company, I read every interview.”
“That is not curiosity.”
“No.”
“What was it?”
“Obsession, perhaps.”
Vivian’s skin went cold.
“Did you arrange our seats?”
“I donated through the museum board and asked to be placed near you.”
She closed her eyes.
“I expected you to be like her,” he said. “You weren’t.”
“What did you expect to do?”
“I wanted access.”
“To Cross Meridian?”
“To the family.”
“For revenge?”
“At first, I wanted Celeste to know I was close to you.”
“Did you tell her?”
“No.”
“Then how would she know?”
“I thought she would investigate.”
Vivian almost laughed.
“She did.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
Grant looked into the camera.
“Then I loved you.”
The sentence did not repair anything.
It made the damage worse.
“Did you propose because you needed money?”
“No.”
“Did the company need money when you proposed?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know my trust could guarantee the loan?”
“Yes.”
Vivian held the pearl between two fingers.
“How am I supposed to separate those facts?”
“You cannot.”
The honesty surprised her.
Grant continued.
“I wanted you before I needed the guarantee. I needed the guarantee before I decided to ask. I told myself the order mattered.”
“Did it?”
“No.”
Vivian looked at him.
For the first time since the party, he seemed less interested in winning.
“What happens to your employees?” she asked.
“The board is seeking emergency capital.”
“Without my name.”
“Without your name.”
“Will they find it?”
“Not enough to save everything.”
“How many jobs?”
“Possibly half.”
Vivian felt the weight of people she had never met enter the conversation.
Grant saw it.
“Do not let Celeste tell you their losses are my responsibility alone.”
“They are not mine.”
“No.”
“Say it again.”
“They are not your responsibility.”
“Then why did you try to make them mine?”
His face tightened.
“Because I was afraid.”
Vivian closed her hand around the pearl.
“That is everyone’s answer.”
“It is often true.”
“It is not enough.”
“No.”
She ended the call.
Celeste entered only after Vivian opened the connecting door.
Her mother carried coffee and a plain bagel.
Vivian accepted both.
“What did he say?” Celeste asked.
“The truth, or enough of it.”
“Which truth?”
“That he arranged to meet me because of you.”
Celeste sat across from her.
“I am sorry.”
Vivian looked up.
“For his choice?”
“For giving him a reason to believe proximity to you could injure me.”
“That is not your apology to make.”
“It is part of it.”
Vivian tore the bagel in half.
Her appetite had returned at the least appropriate time. She ate because hunger did not care about betrayal.
“What will the credit committee do?” she asked.
“Appoint an independent restructuring officer if the board agrees. Otherwise, enforce remedies after default.”
“Which do you want?”
Celeste looked at the coffee.
“To enforce.”
“Why?”
“Grant used our name, forged your signature, and concealed his financial condition.”
“And because of his father.”
“Yes.”
The honesty mattered.
“What happens if you enforce immediately?”
“Properties are sold. Operations continue where buyers exist. Others close.”
“How many employees lose jobs?”
“We do not know.”
“Estimate.”
“Between one hundred and one hundred eighty.”
Vivian looked toward the window.
Morning traffic moved below. People carried umbrellas, coffee, backpacks. No one looked like part of a moral problem.
“Can the company be restructured?”
“Possibly.”
“With Grant removed?”
“Yes.”
“Would it cost Cross Meridian more?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Celeste named a figure.
Vivian let out a breath.
“You can afford it.”
“That is not how credit decisions work.”
“That is how your credit decisions work when you want them to.”
Celeste’s mouth tightened.
Vivian continued.
“I am not asking you to forgive the debt.”
“What are you asking?”
“Give the board seventy-two hours to appoint independent management and disclose the false guarantee to every lender and investor.”
“They may use the time to move assets.”
“Freeze transfers.”
“That requires agreement.”
“You control the chair.”
Celeste looked at her.
“You have been listening.”
“To everyone.”
Her mother sat back.
“What do you want from this?”
“Not revenge.”
“That is not an outcome.”
“It is a limit.”
Celeste touched the brooch.
Vivian noticed how often she did it when uncertain.
“I can recommend a standstill,” Celeste said. “The committee may refuse.”
“Will you vote for it?”
“Yes.”
“Because I asked?”
“Because the alternative would be influenced by my history with Grant’s father.”
Vivian studied her.
“That sounds almost responsible.”
Celeste gave a tired smile.
“Do not become unbearable at the exact moment I improve.”
Vivian laughed.
The sound surprised both of them.
It lasted only a second.
Then Vivian began crying again.
Celeste moved her chair closer but did not touch her until Vivian reached out.
The seventy-two-hour standstill changed the company’s options.
Grant’s board accepted the appointment of an independent restructuring officer. Grant resigned as chief executive and surrendered voting control during the review. The unauthorized guarantee was disclosed to lenders. Two investors withdrew. One lender agreed to extend a smaller facility after three properties were placed for sale.
The lakeside mansion was included.
Grant remained in the house for six weeks under an occupancy agreement while preparing the properties for transfer. Vivian never returned.
She communicated through counsel about belongings, shared accounts, and the engagement ring. Grant’s mother requested the ring back. Vivian’s attorney returned it by insured courier.
May you like
The broken pearls stayed with Vivian.
A jeweler said the necklace could be restored perfectly if they replaced the six missing pearls with matched ones. Vivian declined. She asked him to restring the twenty-six she recovered and leave the necklace shorter.
