Chapter 4

I looked at her, my eyes hot. "What if... what if that fool wanted to start over now? Would there still be time?"

The light turned green.

The car behind us started honking.

Flustered, Fern turned back to face the road and drove, but I clearly saw the flush spreading fast up to her ears.

"That depends... on how that fool behaves."

Her voice was soft, but it fell like a shaft of sunlight, lighting up my gray world.

The next two weeks were the happiest days I'd had in ten years.

I didn't tell Fern the truth.

I stayed in an ordinary budget hotel—I lied and told her the house had been repossessed by the bank—and every day I wore my old T-shirts, rode around in Fern's little Polo, went grocery shopping with her, cooked for her.

Our relationship warmed fast, as if we'd slipped back across ten years into those green, awkward school days.

Fern never brought up the money, and never asked when I could pay her back.

She was always finding ways to save, taking me to hole-in-the-wall diners, to parks that were free.

She said, "Jason, we don't have money right now, but as long as we're together, things will get better."

Watching her count every penny and still stay full of hope, the urge to give her everything grew stronger and stronger in me.

That weekend came.

I wanted to take her somewhere nice.

"Come on, I'm taking you out for seafood today." I took her hand.

Fern shook her head. "Don't waste the money. We can buy some shrimp at the store and boil them at home, it's the same thing."

"No. Today's your birthday." I wouldn't budge. "I already made a reservation. That place down by the river, Tidewater Grille."

She couldn't talk me out of it, so she gave in.

At the door of the restaurant, Fern looked at all that gleaming decor and hesitated. "Jason, this place looks really expensive... should we go somewhere else?"

"Don't worry, I've got a group-buy voucher, it's cheap." I lied.

The truth was the restaurant was one of my own properties, but I didn't want to scare her.

We took a table by the window. We'd just finished ordering when a shrill, grating voice cut in from beside us.

"Well, if it isn't Mr. Dickerson, the big bankrupt boss."

I frowned and turned my head.

It's a small world for enemies.

Antonia stood there on the arm of a paunchy middle-aged man, looking at me with pure contempt.

She was in a brand-new Chanel suit, a huge diamond ring on her hand, all but writing "I have money" across her forehead.

"What's this? You're broke and you still dare to eat at a place like this?" Antonia looked me up and down in my cheap clothes, then glanced at Fern beside me in her plain outfit, and let out a sneer. "Oh, isn't this the first love you dumped back in the day? Fern, right? What, picking through the trash now? Just divorced and already shacked up with this pauper. You two really are a perfect match. A pair of penniless nobodies!"

Fern's face went red. She stood up and put herself in front of me. "Antonia, watch your mouth! Jason may be broke, but he's a thousand times better than someone like you who'd sell out anyone for a profit!"

"Ha? Better than me?" Antonia looked like she'd just heard the biggest joke in the world. "My husband now does major construction projects. He's worth tens of millions! And Jason? He's tens of millions in the hole! Fern, is your brain waterlogged? Stick with a loser like this and you can wait to go sleep under a bridge with him!"

As she spoke, she deliberately shook the arm of the thick-jowled man beside her. "Honey, look, that's my useless ex-husband. I hear he's out conning people for money lately. You'd better watch out, don't let him latch onto us."

The heavy man had been looking down, replying to a message. At her words he lifted his head lazily, the flesh of his face quivering. "Oh? So this is the Dickerson guy..."

But the moment his gaze landed on my face, his voice cut off.

For that one instant, the look on his face was something to see.

From scorn, to confusion, to sheer terror.

His pupils contracted hard, his face went white in a heartbeat, and the cold sweat broke out on his forehead all at once.

Antonia hadn't noticed a thing wrong with the man beside her, still babbling on. "Jason, take my advice and get lost, don't ruin my appetite. You think a place like this is for the likes of you? And these waiters, honestly, letting any stray cat or dog in here..."

Smack!

One crisp slap, and the whole restaurant went silent in an instant.

Antonia held her cheek, staring at Fern in disbelief.

Fern's hand was still trembling, but her eyes were rock steady.

"I won't let you insult him!" Fern was shaking with rage. "So you have money, big deal? Money means you can trample on someone's dignity? Antonia, you make me sick!"

"You... you dare hit me?" Antonia shrieked and lunged forward like a fishwife. "Fern, you bitch! I'll rip your mouth off!"

"Honey! She hit me! Go teach this pair of dogs a lesson!" Antonia screamed and yanked at the heavy man.

I watched all this coldly, just about to rise and shield Fern.

Instead I saw the heavy man wrench his hand free of Antonia's grip like he'd been electrocuted.

The next second, he did something that left both Antonia and Fern completely stunned.

He hurried over to me, bent at the waist to a full ninety degrees, his voice shaking with the most groveling eagerness to please.

"Mr.... Mr. Dickerson?! How... how are you here?"

That one "Mr. Dickerson" came out utterly heart-wrenching, dripping with sincerity.

Antonia froze, the hand over her cheek stiff in midair.

Fern froze too, staring blankly at the fat man who'd been so unbeatable a moment ago and now stood in front of me like a lapdog.

I gave him a flat glance, picked up my teacup, and took a sip. "You know me?"

The heavy man wiped at his cold sweat and stammered, "Know—know you! Of course I know you! I'm Fergus Whitney, of Whitney Construction! At the last company gala I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of you from the back row! That—that three-billion new campus project of yours, I even put in a bid..."

Three billion.

The number was out, and Antonia's eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Fergus, are you sure you've got the wrong man?" Antonia shrieked. "He's bankrupt! He's thirteen million in the hole! He's a penniless bum!"

"Shut up!!"

Fergus spun around and backhanded Antonia with a ringing slap.

That blow was far harder than the one Fern had just landed. It knocked Antonia flat to the floor.

"You money-burning wench! You trying to get me killed?!" Fergus roared, every ounce of flesh on his face trembling. "Mr. Dickerson's company just doubled its share price last month! Market cap broke a hundred billion! Bankrupt? All of Seattle could go bankrupt before Mr. Dickerson does! Talk another word of nonsense and I'll divorce you on the spot!!"

06.

The air seemed to freeze.