My confusion deepened. He looked sopleasedwith himself as he took both of my hands in his.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“I paid off your debt.”
My anger faltered, the words not quite registering at first. “My debt?”
He smiled, his eyes gleaming. “It wasn’t easy. It took some serious work, and I had to work with our lawyers to make a few changes to the company’s bylaws, which is why I’ve been working nonstop. But it’s gone, Kathleen. You’re free of it.”
I blinked, still trying to process. “You… paid off my debt?”
He nodded, and his smile grew even wider, as if he’d just handed me the world. “Yeah. It’s gone. No more penalties, no more interest. Everything’s wiped clean.”
I stood there, my mind struggling to catch up. How was this even possible? Could a billionaire just wave a magic wand and make things disappear? It didn’t make sense. Could he just change the bylaws of any company he wanted? Was that how the world worked?
“How?” I asked, skepticism thick in my voice. “How did you get them to waive the rule that I couldn’t pay it back early?”
He hesitated for just a second, his eyes locking onto mine. “Because I own the company.”
For a moment, the air seemed to thicken around us, the weight of his words not quite hitting me entirely yet. “You what?”
“I own the loan company. The one that holds your debt,” he said slowly, his voice soft, as if he were easing me into this reality.
I took a step back, my pulse racing, the pieces starting to fall into place.I own the company.The same loan company that had made my life so difficult for years. The one that bought my parents’ debt and had been steadily growing it, trapping me under a mountain of financial ruin.
I was frozen, as the shock gave way to a slow-burning anger. All those years of struggling under the weight of that debt, the fear of never getting out from under it. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. This was the company that had made my life so hard.
And Topher had been behind it all.
22
It feltlike I’d been punched in the chest.
Topher was still smiling, as if he’d given me the best news in the world, completely unaware of the weight of what he’d just revealed.
I swallowed, my voice tight with disbelief. “You own the loan company? The one that’s been harassing me for years? The reason I dropped out of college? The company that bought out my parents’ debt and has been increasing it?Thatcompany?”
Topher’s smile faltered, confusion flickering in his eyes. “Yes, that’s my company.” He spoke slowly, cautiously, now, like he was realizing this wasn’t the celebration he thought it would be.
My mind was spinning, flashing back to the endless stress: the sleepless nights, the mounting fear, the suffocating pressure of trying to escape that debt.
Shock crashed over me like a wave. I pulled my hands out of his, my skin suddenly feeling too hot. “You’re telling me you own the company that’s been dragging me down foryears?”
He wasn’t quite so confident anymore, and his voice took on a defensive tone. “It’s a huge company. We handle debt for millions of people. I had no idea you were one of them.”
The room seemed to shrink around me, the walls closing in. “So, you’ve been profiting off my misery this whole time?”
Topher’s eyes widened, as if the shock finally dawned on him. He took a step forward, his expression pleading. “No, it’s not like that?—”
“But itis.” I was shaking, the anger rising in my chest. “I’ve been drowning in this debt, and all along, you were behind the company, pulling the strings!”
His shoulders drooped, and he reached out to me again. “As soon as I found out, I moved heaven and earth to fix it. I swear. I paid it off because I care about you. I just wanted to make it right.”
Moved heaven and earth?Oh, please. The $150,000 in debt that was world-shattering and future-crushing to me was probably pocket change to him. A tiny fraction of his net worth. He could’ve paid it off in the time it takes to order coffee. He didn’t make some grand, heroic effort. It was nothing. A blip on his radar, easily erased. And now, he stood there, acting like he’d just solved all my problems with a wave of his billionaire wand. Like I should be grateful.
But I wasn’t. I couldn’t be. This wasn’t just about the debt. It was about everything that debt represented. That debt had been the secret my parents kept from me, something so massive they couldn’t bring themselves to share it. And then, when they were gone, I was left to deal with its crushing weight. Finding out how deep in debt they were, how much they’d hidden from me, was devastating. It didn’t just wreck my life financially; it shattered my trust and my sense of stability. And now, the man sitting next to me, the man I had fallen for, had been part of it all along.
I ran, storming down the hall toward the front of the house. I needed air, and I needed to escape the weight of what he’d just told me.
