Chapter 4
Two days later, Jake said, “I want to show you something.”
We got in the pickup again, but this time he didn’t drive toward the auto shop.
He drove downtown, to the tallest, shiniest skyscraper I’d ever seen, the one with the Hale Industries logo glowing at the very top in silver steel.
I stared up at it, my mouth a little dry.
“All of this?” I said.
“All of this,” he said.
He took my hand, and we walked through the glass front doors.
The lobby was marble, so shiny I could see my reflection in it. A receptionist sat behind a curved desk, her hair perfectly coiffed, her smile so polished it looked painted on.
The second she saw Jake, she stood up so fast her chair scraped the floor.
“Mr. Hale,” she said, her voice warm and professional. “Good morning. Sarah’s waiting for you in the boardroom.”
“Thanks, Lisa,” Jake said, and he smiled at her like they were old friends.
We walked to the elevators, and every single person we passed stopped what they were doing.
They nodded. They said, “Good morning, Mr. Hale.” Their eyes widened a little when they saw me holding his hand.
I felt like a kid who’d wandered into a grown-up party by mistake.
The elevator shot up to the top floor.
When the doors opened, a woman in a sharp gray suit was waiting for us, her tablet in her hand.
She had short dark hair and a no-nonsense look in her eye, like she didn’t have time for nonsense.
This was Sarah.
The woman Jake had called from the wedding.
“Mr. Hale,” she said, then turned to me, her face softening into a real smile. “You must be Mia. I’ve heard so much about you. I’m Sarah, his executive assistant. And the only person in this building who can tell him he’s wrong and get away with it.”
I laughed, some of my nervousness melting away.
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
“Come on,” Jake said, tugging my hand. “I want to show you my office first.”
His office was at the very end of the hall, floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the whole city.
It was huge.
Leather couches. A desk the size of our kitchen table. Shelves lined with books and awards and framed photos.
I walked over to the shelves, my fingers brushing the frames.
Most of the photos were of Jake as a kid, with his grandfather. A few of him with his old high school friends.
And then I saw it.
A photo of me.
Taken at the lake, last summer, right after we’d gotten engaged. I was laughing, my hair wet from swimming, holding a fish I’d just caught that was almost as big as my arm.
Jake had it framed, sitting right between a photo of his grandfather and the award Hale Industries had won for building low-income housing the year before.
My throat tightened.
“You kept this here?” I said.
He came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist.
“Every day,” he said. “When I’m stuck in meetings with guys who only care about their bonuses, I look at it. I remember what I’m working for.”
Sarah knocked softly on the doorframe.
“Sorry to interrupt,” she said. “But Ethan Voss is downstairs. He says he won’t leave until he speaks to Mr. Hale. He brought his lawyer.”
Jake’s jaw tightened.
“Send him up,” he said.
I tensed.
“Want me to leave?” I said.
“No,” he said, squeezing my hand. “You stay. This concerns you too.”
Five minutes later, Ethan walked in, followed by a man in a dark suit carrying a briefcase.
Ethan looked terrible.
His eyes were red, his shirt wrinkled, his hair a mess like he hadn’t slept in three days.
The second he saw me, his face twisted.
“Jake,” he said, holding his hands out like he was surrendering. “Please. Just hear me out. The wedding was a mistake. Charlotte was out of line, I know that. I’ve already yelled at her. I’ve told her she has to apologize to Mia—”
“Save it,” Jake said, sitting down behind his desk. “You didn’t come here to apologize. You came here to beg for your company.”
Ethan flinched.
“Fifty million,” he said, his voice desperate. “That’s all I need. I’ll give you 40% of the company. 50%. Whatever you want. I have two hundred employees. They’ll all lose their jobs if this falls through. Families. Kids. You can’t do that to them.”
Jake leaned back in his chair, his face unreadable.
“Your employees aren’t the problem,” he said. “The problem is you’ve been cooking the books for two years. You’ve been lying to your investors, overstating your profits, taking out loans you can never pay back. I knew that before I even considered the deal. I was going to give you the money anyway, because I thought you had potential. Because I thought you might turn it around.”
He leaned forward, his voice cold.
“But then you let your fiancée stand up there and humiliate my wife. And I realized something. A man who lets someone treat the person he loves like that? A man who doesn’t have the backbone to tell his own fiancée to shut up when she’s being cruel? That’s not a man I want to do business with. That’s not a man I trust with my money.”
Ethan’s face went white.
His lawyer shifted uncomfortably beside him.
“Please,” Ethan whispered. “I’ll do anything.”
“Here’s what you’re going to do,” Jake said. “You’re going to file for bankruptcy. You’re going to sell off every asset you have to pay back your investors. You’re going to step down as CEO, and you’re never going to run a company again. If I ever hear your name attached to another real estate deal in this state, I will personally make sure you never work in this city again. Do we understand each other?”
Ethan stared at him for a long, defeated second.
Then he nodded.
“Good,” Jake said. “Sarah will show you out.”
They left without another word.
The office went quiet.
I looked at Jake, really looked at him.
The man who fixed cars for fun. The man who cried at dog adoption commercials. The man who’d just destroyed another man’s entire career without even raising his voice.
“Are you okay?” he said, reaching for my hand.
I nodded.
“I’m okay,” I said.
And for the first time since the wedding, I meant it.
May you like
I didn’t know what was coming next.
But I knew I wasn’t afraid anymore.
