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"The loan has been secured. We are officially ready to get these ideas off the ground and bring the store back as soon as possible," he said.
I nearly jumped up and down on the bed in celebration, but I contained myself. Mainly because the breakfast tray was still on top of me, and I didn't want to fling the food and the orange juice all over the room. Instead, I clapped my hands.
"That's amazing! I'm so excited. Do we know when things are going to go through? When can we really get started?" I asked.
"All those details are going to get worked out in the next couple of days. I'll keep you posted on it. But that's not all," Victor said.
"Oh, right. You said there was another call. What's going on?" I asked. "Who was it?'
He took a few steps closer to the bed. There was something in his eyes and behind his smile now that was different than it had been when he was talking about the loan. It was still happiness, but now there was surprise, satisfaction, and disbelief mixed in.
"It was my lawyer," he said. "He's been doing some digging and found out my ex has been embezzling from my old company."
My mouth dropped open. Now I fully understood that disbelief.
"What? Are you serious?" I asked.
He nodded. "Apparently it was pretty extensive, and she'd gotten really deep. Of course, when she was called out for it, she tried to pin the blame on me. But the records are clear when examined by the right person. There's no way to get around it. It was her all along."
He let out a sound that was somewhere between a gasp and a laugh, shaking his head.
"I can't believe it. Well, actually, I can believe it. She seemed like she was right on the edge. She was definitely hiding something. I think she knew she was in too deep and there was no way she was going to be able to keep it hidden forever. She was going to go down hard soon and was hoping somehow, I could be her last resort to save herself," he said.
"That's crazy. But I'm so glad you know now," I said. "That must make you feel so much better. I mean, probably not the fact that she was embezzling from your company and essentially stole from you." I gave a relenting shrug.
Victor laughed. "No, but I am glad everything got cleared up and now it can finally get straightened out the way it should be."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"She’s been arrested. It's the beginning of a rough road for her. As for me, the ownership of my old company is available again. She can't exactly run it from behind bars, and no one knows that company like I do, so the partners want me back," he said.
I was a bit stunned but tried not to show it. This, of course, was everything he'd been wanting. It had obviously broken his heart that he didn't have his company anymore, and it was worse to think about his ex running it, especially when the problems within it became more evident. Now he had the opportunity to right those wrongs and get things back to the way they had been for him. But I would be lying if I said it didn't make my chest ache to think about him leaving town and going back to that life.
"You have to do it," I said, knowing it was the right thing to tell him. "That company is rightfully yours anyway, and you deserve to be happy doing what you love."
Victor took the breakfast tray away from my lap and set it aside so he could move close to me on the bed. He held my hand and looked directly into my eyes.
"Melanie, I don't know the first thing about the grocery business," he said. I let out a short laugh. That wasn't exactly the declaration I was anticipating, but it was at least honest. "But there is something I do know. I don't want to be anywhere other than right here right now."
The tightness in my chest released, and I smiled. "Really?"
"Really." He leaned forward and kissed me softly, taking a second to rest his forehead against mine as he pulled away. When he sat up, he looked earnest, like there was a long list of things going through his head and he knew he had to work through them but was determined to do it. "It's going to takesome time to figure it all out, and I need to decide exactly what I'm going to do about all this. But what we have is important. I'm not going to just let it go."
23
VICTOR
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath as I hung up the phone.
When I heard what had happened with Sarah, I had mixed feelings even though I could recognize how beneficial it would be to me financially. Still, the headache that would come in the fallout was obvious, and I tried not to let myself get too excited.
That phone call was the reason why.
I scrolled through my contacts and found Mark’s number. Mark had always been the most responsible of our little group, the one who could be depended on to remember the little things and act like a grown-up.
“Hey, bud, what’s up?” Mark asked as he answered the phone.
“Hey man, I have a favor to ask you.”
