Chapter 57 What Does It Mean To Rescue?
The paper in Sarah’s hand felt heavier than any lead weight she had ever carried, and she stood in the middle of her living room with the lights dimmed, staring at the front door until she heard the sound of Alex’s truck pull into the driveway.
She did not move when the key turned in the lock, and she did not smile when Alex walked inside looking tired and drained, his expensive suit jacket draped over one arm and his tie hanging loose around his neck. He looked at her and saw the file sitting on the coffee table, and the small smile he was trying to give her died instantly, his eyes turning cautious as he realized that the secret he had been hiding was finally out in the open.
"I got an email today from someone I don't know, Alex, and it had a lot of numbers and a lot of bank names in it, so I want you to tell me why you spent five million dollars to buy my debt from the bank without telling me a single word about it," Sarah said, and her voice was flat and dead, which seemed to scare him more than if she had been screaming.
Alex dropped his jacket on the chair and walked toward her, his hands reaching out to touch her shoulders, but she stepped back and kept the coffee table between them because she could not stand the thought of him touching her while those numbers were still burning in her mind.
"I did it to save you, Sarah, as long as that bank held your debt, my father held your life, and I had to cut his hands off so he couldn't squeeze you anymore, so I used the Vane money to buy every single loan and every single interest payment so that you would be free," Alex said, his voice sounding deep and urgent, and he looked at her like he expected her to thank him for taking away her problems.
"I am not free, Alex, I am just owned by a different person now, and the person who owns me is the man who sleeps in my bed and tells me he loves me while he treats my business like a piece of property he can just buy at an auction," Sarah snapped, and she picked up the file and threw it onto the table so the papers slid across the wood. "You didn't ask me if I wanted this, you just decided that I was too weak to handle it myself and you used your grandfather's money to turn me into a charity case."
"You were drowning, Sarah, and I was not going to stand by and watch you lose your firm just because you have a pride that won't let you accept help, so yes, I bought the debt, and I would do it again tomorrow if it meant my father couldn't use it to bully you into leaving me," Alex yelled, and he stepped around the table, his body looming over her with a dominant, possessive energy that made the room feel tight.
"It is not help when it is done in the dark, Alex, it is control, and you are acting just like Richard by thinking that money gives you the right to make choices for me, and I feel like a trophy you bought to keep on your shelf instead of a partner you actually respect," she told him, and her eyes were wet with tears of shame because she realized that the whole city was going to think she was a woman who had a price tag.
"I respect you more than anyone in the world, but I had to protect you, and if that means I have to own the bank to keep you safe, then that is what I’m going to do, so stop looking at me like I betrayed you when all I’ve done is sacrifice my soul to stay in that office for you," Alex said, his voice cracking with exhaustion, and he grabbed her waist and pulled her against him, his grip so firm it was almost a demand for her to stop fighting him.
The argument went on for hours, Sarah realized that the power dynamic between them was completely broken because she could never look at him again without seeing the five million dollars that stood between them. Alex stayed at her house, but they did not sleep, they just sat in the quiet until the sun came up and the phone calls started, and the first call was from the Harrington Group legal team telling Alex that he was needed for an emergency board meeting.
Richard had not stayed quiet, and by the time Alex and Sarah arrived at the headquarters, the news had been leaked to every board member that Alex had been moving massive sums of Vane money into private accounts to pay off the debts of his lover, and the story was being spun to look like Alex was embezzling funds or being manipulated by an older woman. Sarah was forced to sit in a cold, sterile hearing room with ten men in gray suits looking at her like she was a thief, and she had to answer questions about her finances and her relationship until she felt like she had been stripped of every bit of her dignity.
"Mrs. Hayes, did you ask Mr. Harrington to liquidate his grandfather’s trust to cover your business losses, or did he offer this as a condition of your continued relationship?" one of the board members asked, his voice sounding like a blunt instrument.
"I didn't even know about that kind of money money until yesterday, and I never asked for a single penny, I have worked for twenty years to build my firm and I didn't want any of this," Sarah said, her voice sounding small and tired, and she looked over at Alex, who was sitting at the end of the table with his jaw set and his eyes full of a lethal, cold fury as he watched his father smile from the head of the room.
Richard sat there looking like a concerned parent, but Sarah could see the victory in his eyes because he had turned their love into a legal liability and a public scandal, and he had made Sarah look like a mercenary in front of the people who mattered most to her career.
The hearing lasted all morning, and Sarah felt like she was going to collapse from the weight of the glares and the whispers, and she just wanted it to be over so she could go home and hide, but then Richard’s lead lawyer stood up and pulled a fresh document out of his briefcase.
"We have been reviewing the terms of the debt buyout that Mr. Harrington authorized through the Vane shell company, and there is a specific clause regarding the collateral that was moved along with the loans," the lawyer said, and he walked over to Sarah and set a paper in front of her.
Alex leaned forward, his eyes narrowing.
"What are you talking about, the collateral was the business assets, nothing else."
"Actually, Alex, when you bought the primary loan from the regional bank, you also took over the secondary lien that Sarah signed three years ago when she was expanding her office space," the lawyer said, looking at Sarah with a fake kind of pity.
"And since that lien was backed by her personal property, this document shows that the Vane trust, which is now managed by the Harrington Group, has total ownership of Sarah’s home."
Sarah felt the room start to spin, and she looked at the paper and saw her own signature next to a legal description of the house she had lived in for fifteen years, and then she looked at Alex, who looked like he had been struck by lightning.
"You bought my house, Alex?" she whispered, and the silence in the room was so loud it felt like it was going to roar.