Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“Because—”
“Because what!”
“Because we can’t afford it!” Vance’s eyes bugged out of his head, spittle showering his glass desk. “It’d have cost twenty million dollars to buy you the fuck out! Where the fuck am I going to get twenty fucking fuck million fucking dollars!” he bellowed, blowing my brows up. “FUCK!”
“Vance, what are you talking about?” I asked in a tone much gentler than he deserved. “It’s not like you’d be fronting the bill. The company would’ve paid.”
“The company can’t pay.” He threw up his hands, pacing like a caged animal. “Caddell House is broke.”
“Wait, what?” I cried.
“Broke! B.R.O.K.E. Broke,” he blared. “We’re two fucking seconds away from bankruptcy!”
“How is that possible?”
“How we stayed in business for this long is the real question.” Vance tore at his hair. “The whole damn world locked themselves in their homes for a year, and you know what someone doesn’t need to go from their couch to the kitchen? A fucking evening gown!”
I could only blink at the rapidly deteriorating mess in front of me.
“Sales plummeted during the pandemic, and the company was forced to borrow heavily to stay afloat. The big bosses thought all they’d have to do is hold out. Soon, our customers and high-profile clients would come back, and we’d crawl out of the red again. But then the head of Caddell House Paris was hit with a sexual harassment suit that was cosigned by everyone in the fucking building! That pig even hit on the part-time cleaner’s daughter. Her twelve-year-old daughter!”
I grimaced, stomach churning. “Fucking hell.”
“Yeah, fucking hell!” he cried, spinning back the other way to resume his pacing. “The company paid out millions to buy them all off and get them to sign NDAs. And then if that wasn’t enough, we were forced to recall the entire summer line because the bitch-ass textile company used Class Three fabrics to undercut the price.”
“Class Three fabrics are flammable,” I told Sunny, seeing his confused frown. “Highly flammable. As in, ‘cannot be used for clothing under any circumstances’ flammable.”
“I see,” Sunny replied. “But what I don’t see, is what the fuck that has to do with my family. We didn’t cause the pandemic, or hire a pedophile to run your fucking Paris house, or set supermodels on fire!”
“No, you just embezzled enough money from us to buy a fucking country!”
Sunny blew back. “Embezzled? What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Don’t give me that!” Vance picked up his desk clock and flung it at the window, shattering it on impact. “The numbers just weren’t adding up. Caddell House Cinco City is the flagship branch, but somehow, we were bleeding money worse than anyone, and we have been for years since before I took over.
“We didn’t understand it until I finally hired a forensic accountant to go over the books. That’s how I found out about your little fucking scam.”
Sunny and I traded looks. He’s just as confused as me.
“What scam?” he asked. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Maybe you do, maybe you don’t, but just because you weren’t the Merchant in particular who embezzled from us, doesn’t mean one of your felon brothers and sisters didn’t.”
“Dude, enough with the accusations and just explain what you mean,” I snapped. “Why do you think the Merchants embezzled from Caddell House?”
“I told you,” he hissed. “We figured out the scam. It wasn’t right away or even noticeable at first, but one day, we woke up and found out our expenses had tripled. The price of fabrics, buttons, buckles, sewing machines, you name it! Our individual suppliers kept raising the costs, and when we finally confronted one of them to tell us why, the truth spilled out,” he spat, lips curling. “You, or one of your fucking family, threatened them all one by one. You told them to inflate their invoices, charge us more, and then give you the cream off the top. If they didn’t, they’d regret it.”
If possible, Sunny’s “what the fuck?” face got even more screwed up. “What the hell? No, we didn’t.”
“Yes, you did! I have proof—”
“You have proof that we both got played and you fucking fell for it. The Merchants don’t go after legitimate businesses or innocent people—period. We fuck sure don’t intimidate random button-sellers!”
“You don’t go after innocent people? Ha!” Vance barked, making me jump. “Don’t make me laugh. What do you call what you’ve been doing to Caddell House for years! You’ve been treating us like your fucking Green Mart!”
Sunny’s eyes narrowed to slits. “The deal our family has with Caddell is legitimate. My dad gave him a straightforward, legal investment with a legal contract that wasn’t signed under duress. It was your original boss who offered our family a discount for life, and he did that of his own free will to say thank you. Don’t you fucking dare turn a gift into a bribe. The Merchants have done a lot of fucked-up shit, and I’m proud as hell because we’ve only ever done it to people who deserve it.