Page 56 of Indebted

“Ms. Darling will see you now,” the receptionist behind the desk called to me.

I’d been busy staring out the 12th floor of their headquarters, close enough to LAX that I could watch the freeway and the planes. It was strange to watch everything bustling around me when I was so eerily calm inside.

Ready.

I was ready.

I followed the receptionist as they led me down a hallway, past numerous offices with large windows and smartly dressed people.

I wore the same thing I wore nearly every day to the clinic, it was all I had, and it was me, but it didn’t even matter. What I was about to do would change the course of everything.

When Millie Darling looked me over without blinking an eye at my outfit and shook my hand like an equal—I liked her instantly.

A pang of regret went through me, but then I thought of Justin. The way he held me, looked at me…it filled my chest with warmth. I was doing this for us. For me.

“Please,” Ms. Darling gestured to a chair. “Have a seat. Thank you for meeting on such short notice.”

“My pleasure.”

She was younger than I expected. Ageless in that way where I couldn’t tell if she was in her thirties or forties. She folded her hands on top of her desk. “I’m not going to mince words, I’m very interested in your program, Ms. Malone. I was nervous at first, given your age, but your reputation proceeds you. Outstanding grades, multiple jobs, and outstanding references.”

She picked up a piece of paper, and without looking, I knew it was Justin’s testimony. The one he thought condemned me.

“I’d like to do much more than buy your idea, I’d like to purchase the whole package, and that includes you.”

My jaw hit the floor.

“I understand you’ll be graduating soon? We would have to work out logistics, but I would very much like to bring you on to my team immediately while you’re still completing your studies. What do you say?”

There was so much I wanted to say, mostly hooting and hollering with joy, but I kept that to myself and snapped my gaping mouth shut. Wiping my palms on my thighs, I looked Ms. Darling straight in the eye. “I would love that, but there’s something you need to know. Something that might change everything, but you didn’t mince words, and neither will I. I’m in love with a man, a man that is so worried about me ruining my future that he doesn’t think we can be together, and in a way he’s right. This man is Justin Kingston. He’s a plastic surgeon that’s trying to open a clinic in Eastern Los Angeles to help low income families.”

Ms. Darling stared at me, the letter from Justin still held in her grasp. I watched her start to put the pieces together. Her eyes drifted to the paper in her hand and back up. “It says here that Justin is your stepfather?”

I lifted my chin. “He is. That doesn’t change how I feel about him. And what you should know is that someone close to him is holding our relationship over his head. They will go to the press because they’re petty and spoiled, and I know how that would look. It looks like I slept with Justin to get that letter, but I’m telling you, woman to woman, that that is not the case. I would love to go into business with you Ms. Darling, but you needed to know everything. I can’t have that hanging over my head. I won’t let someone else determine what I can or can’t do.”

The whir of the air conditioning was all I heard for what felt like eternity.

Finally, Ms. Darling put the paper down and with it, my hopes and dreams. She skewered me with her dark eyes, peeling me apart, layer by layer.

And I let her. I had nothing to hide anymore.

Another eternity later, she leaned back in her chair and tapped her chin. “It takes guts to do what you did, Ms. Malone.”

“Thank you.”

“But that kind of press is bad news.”

My stomach sank. “I know.”

“Then it’s a good thing I pay my lawyers handsomely, because if any slander about you comes up in the papers, I’ll slap a lawsuit on it.”

My head whipped up. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t dare believe it.

Ms. Darling smiled at me and extended her hand, “so, what do you say?”

I rose from my chair and clasped her hand. “I do have one question.”

Her perfectly sculpted brow rose.