Chapter 38

Chapter 38

SHANNON.

I stood by the window for the tenth time that night, pulling the curtain aside just enough to see the empty street, but there was still no sign of him.

It was already past nine PM.

My stomach twisted.

Oh, God.

I began pacing the living room again, trying to steady my breathing, but my heart would not cooperate. It was beating so fast that it felt as though something terrible had already happened and I was the last person to know.

Should I report this to the police? I mean... What would I even say?

'Hi, my husband and I got into an argument. He left the house and isn't back yet?'

What if something had happened on the road? What if he got into an accident? What if—

What if Kenai had decided that this was the moment?

My thoughts spiraled into darker places. What if...

Knock. Knock.

I gasped and spun toward the door, adrenaline surging through me. I did not even check the peephole. I flung it open.

“Oh, God!” Relief exploded out of me. “George! Baby! I was so worried!”

I threw my arms around him, clinging to him as if he might disappear again. He smelled like the outside air and faint cologne.

"Thank God you're back!"

I ushered him inside, already moving into overdrive. I made him coffee even though it was late. I ran him a hot bath, reheated dinner, and set it in front of him like a devoted wife who had nothing to hide. I watched him eat quietly, careful not to bring up any topic that would ruin this quietness.

I forced the ugly, guilty thoughts that kept flashing across my head off, replacing them with how much I loved my husband.

I did my best not to see Kenai’s cum smeared all over my husband’s face while he made me scream his name for mercy.

The image burned behind my eyelids anyway.

George finished eating, and we retired for bed. He wrapped his arms around me while I lay on his chest, hoping the night would finally come to an end.

But that was a wild joke.

“Babe?” he murmured, fingers sliding gently through my hair.

"Mhm?"

"You know how much I love you, don't you?" He paused, as if letting the words digest for a second. "And you know all I've ever wanted is the best for us..."

I sighed, "I know, babe. I do."

“Good.” He kissed the top of my head. “And you trust me, don’t you?”

"I do."

He exhaled, satisfied. “Now more than ever, I need that trust. I need you to trust this process and let me handle everything that comes with it.”

"George..."

"No. Let me finish," He cut me gently. “I have a plan. A real one. I know there are good men out there, and I know there are the not-so-good ones too. But there’s a formula to everything. The money the boss wants to lend me? I know exactly how to multiply it and return it before it ever becomes a problem.”

I listened with a racing heart. There was no going back for George. He was determined to get 'help' from Kenai, and I couldn't even tell him why I was fighting it this much.

“You won’t believe this,” he continued, excitement creeping into his tone, “but his friends want to invest too. Baby, that’s huge. That’s the kind of opportunity people beg for their entire lives and never get.”

He sounded so hopeful that it hurt to breathe. He believed this was his breakthrough. And I was the only one lying awake beside him, seeing the trap tightening.

“I’ll keep you updated every step of the way,” he promised. “If you ever notice anything strange, anything fishy, you tell me immediately. I’ll pull out. I’ll return every dime if I have to.”

My throat felt dry.

“But how would you do that?” I asked quietly. “When you’ve already invested everything into starting the company?”

He went silent for a moment.

He went silent for a moment, and I felt his chest rise and fall steadily beneath my cheek as though he were organizing his thoughts carefully before presenting them to me.

“When you build something from scratch,” he began slowly, “you don’t dump all the capital into it at once. That’s amateur thinking. You stage it.”

I lifted my head slightly so I could look at him.

“Staged how?”

He shifted onto his side, propping himself up on one elbow, and I could see the spark in his eyes. I recognized this George. This was the visionary George. The planner. The man who believed he could outthink risk.

And I sincerely wished that it worked for him right now.

“If the total capital available to me is up to fifty million dollars, considering that his friends are also interested in investing in me,” he said carefully, “I won’t deploy fifty million dollars immediately. That would be reckless. The initial operational requirement for phase one of my company is about eighteen to twenty million. That covers licensing, core tech infrastructure, staffing, and regulatory compliance for the first year.”

He sounded so certain that it almost made it harder to breathe.

“So what happens to the rest?” I asked.

“The remaining thirty million doesn’t sit idle,” he replied, his voice warming with excitement. “I split it. Part of it goes into a high-yield institutional money market account. Not a regular retail one, but a corporate-tier account that offers around five to six percent annual yield with liquidity access. The other portion goes into short-term Treasury bills and structured notes with a six-to-twelve-month maturity window.”

I blinked. “That sounds… complicated.”

“It’s not,” he said with a faint smile. “It’s just disciplined. If thirty million sits in instruments averaging five percent, that’s roughly one and a half million dollars in yield annually without me touching the principal. If I ladder the Treasury bills correctly, I can roll them over every quarter. That means I keep generating safe returns while maintaining liquidity.”

His fingers traced absent patterns on my arm as he spoke, unaware that my pulse was racing for an entirely different reason.

“By the time phase one stabilizes,” he continued, “the company should already be generating revenue. My projections show break-even within twelve to eighteen months if I secure the contracts I’m targeting. Once we hit operational profitability, I won’t need the full remaining capital anymore. I'll return it to Mr. Grayson.”

He paused and let me digest all he just said.

"If everything aligns the way I’ve modeled it, I could clear his full fifty million exposure in under two years.”

He paused, searching my face.

“And here’s the best part,” he added. “Because I won’t be burning through the entire fund upfront, I protect myself. If something starts to look off, I can unwind the investments, liquidate the Treasury bills, and return most of the capital immediately. I’m not cornered. I’m buffered.”

It sounded like a good plan. Perhaps, finally, one could outsmart Kenai, if careful and smart enough.

And while George was at it, I could also do my best to find out what Kenai's game plan truly was.

"So, baby. All you have to do for me is..." He leaned in and kissed my lips. "Get dressed, go to work, and act like the perfect PA the boss ever needed, while I map our way to success. Okay?"

It was so hard to accept it, but I nodded either way.

"That's my girl. I will never forget this. And I'll put you first as soon as everything falls in pleasant places, okay?"

I nodded again, "Okay."