Chapter 2 - The Auction of a Groom
Nathan stood in the center of the spotlight,
holding the microphone like it was a live wire.
The silence in the Bellweather ballroom was absolute,
save for the sound of red wine dripping from the edge of Grant’s table.
Grant was half-standing,
his eyes locked on Nathan with a predatory intensity.
“Sit down, Nathan,”
Grant said,
his voice low but carrying through the quiet.
“You’ve had enough to drink.”
It was a lie,
and everyone knew it.
Nathan hadn't touched his whiskey in an hour.
“I’m sober, Grant,”
Nathan said,
his voice amplified by the speakers.
“I’m more sober than I’ve been since I met this family.”
My mother made a small,
strangled sound in the back of her throat.
“Nathan, dear,”
she said,
standing up and smoothing her silk skirt.
“This is a night for celebration,
let’s not make it about... whatever this is.”
Nathan didn't look at her.
He looked at my father.
Dad was still standing at the head of the table,
the charcoal suit looking heavy on his shoulders.
“Richard,”
Nathan said,
using my father’s name for the first time.
“You told me you wanted me to be part of the family.”
“You told me that family looks out for each other.”
Dad nodded slowly,
his expression cautious.
“That’s right, Nathan.”
“Then tell me,”
Nathan continued.
“Does family usually hold its members hostage?”
A gasp rippled through the room.
Vanessa leaned forward,
her face contorting with rage.
“Kimberly,
do something,”
she hissed at me.
“Shut him up.”
I didn't move.
I didn't speak.
I sat with the leather folder on my lap,
feeling the weight of the truth.
Nathan turned his gaze to the guests.
“Three months ago,
Coleman Brothers Heating and Air was on the verge of bankruptcy.”
“We owed nearly two hundred thousand dollars.”
“I didn't tell Kimberly.”
“I was ashamed.”
He looked down at the floor for a second,
then back up.
“Grant Ellison approached me.”
“He offered me a bridge loan.”
“A way to save my father’s business.”
“The only condition was that I had to date Kimberly.”
The room erupted in whispers.
The sound was like a swarm of bees.
“He told me that Richard and Carol wanted Kimberly to be happy.”
“He said that if I could make her fall in love,
the debt would be forgiven.”
I felt a cold numbness spreading from my chest.
I knew this.
I had seen the messages.
But hearing it spoken aloud,
in front of my caregivers,
my friends,
and my peers,
was different.
It felt like being stripped naked in the middle of a blizzard.
“But then,”
Nathan said,
his voice cracking.
“I actually fell in love.”
“I fell in love with a woman who builds companies with her bare hands.”
“I fell in love with a woman who cares more about eighty-year-olds than she does about country clubs.”
Grant stepped out from behind the table.
“That’s enough,
Coleman.”
“You’re done.”
“No,”
I said,
standing up.
The microphone caught my voice even without me holding one.
Everyone turned to me.
The dependable daughter.
The strong one.
“He’s not done, Grant,”
I said.
I opened the leather folder.
I pulled out the first document.
It was a screenshot of the message Vanessa had sent to Grant.
The one about Nathan staying in line as long as they held the note.
I walked toward the projector screen at the side of the ballroom.
The technician was a twenty-two-year-old kid I had hired myself.
I looked at him.
“Plug this in,”
I said,
handing him my phone.
“Kimberly,
stop!”
my father shouted.
“You’re making a fool of yourself!”
“No, Dad,”
I said,
looking him in the eye.
“You made a fool of me for thirty-three years.”
“Tonight,
I’m just returning the favor.”
The screen flickered to life.
The message was huge.
White text on a blue background.
Once she signs and they marry, Cedar Ridge rolls into the holding company. Nathan stays in line as long as we hold the note.
The silence returned,
colder than before.
Vanessa looked like she wanted to melt into the floor.
Grant was reaching for his phone,
his face dark with a dawning realization.
“This was the plan,
wasn't it?”
I asked the room.
“My marriage was the collateral for a corporate takeover.”
I turned to Nathan.
“You knew about the holding company document?”
Nathan nodded,
his eyes wet.
“They showed it to me last week.”
“They told me that if I didn't get you to sign it,
they would call the note on my father’s shop immediately.”
“They would take everything.”
I looked at my sister.
“You sold your own sister for a fifty-one percent stake in a home care company, Vanessa?”
Vanessa stood up,
her glass of wine shaking in her hand.
“We did it for the family, Kim!”
“Grant said the company needed professional management!”
“You’re just a nurse,
what do you know about scale?”
I laughed.
It was a sharp,
biting sound.
“I know enough to have built a two-million-dollar company without a single loan from your husband.”
“I know enough to keep records of every cent I’ve given this family.”
I pulled out the second document from the folder.
It was a spreadsheet.
Every mortgage payment I had made for my parents.
Every credit card bill of Vanessa’s I had covered.
Every “loan” to Grant that had never been repaid.
The total was at the bottom.
Three hundred forty-two thousand dollars.
“Since you’re so fond of family holdings,”
I said,
May you like
looking at my father.
“I’d like to talk about the interest on this debt.”
