His voice was eerily steady when he spoke. “When it means the survival of a shelter that has helped hundreds of women, then yes, I’ll jump, even if I don’t want to.”
“The shelter is doing fine financially,” she protested.
“Is it? Times are tough out there. People don’t have the money to donate, even to causes they believe in.”
“I saw the latest financials. We have enough.”
“The shelter can’t continue at its current pace more than another six months. Right now, it’s running on reserves, and it’s been fortunate enough to have needed repairs completed through grants and service donations from the community, but even those are drying up.”
His claims were concerning. Was it true? She was still learning the ropes, but if the situation were that dire, surely Rachel would have told her. Unless she didn’t know. Ultimately, the board controlled the budget. “God will provide. He always has.”
“Have you once stopped to consider that maybe God used a stubborn, non-religious, mean-spirited man like my father to do just that?”
She didn’t know what stunned her more—that Trey spoke poorly against his father or that God could have used Thomas Kaplan to keep the shelter going. Somehow, she knew he told her the truth. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t take me seriously and never have because you think I was handed everything on a silver spoon. The other board members are treating me the same way, but guess what? I do have a clue about what I’m doing business-wise, even if I don’t know much about women’s shelters. And no matter what anyone thinks, I will fulfill my duties here to the best of my abilities.” He stopped to take a deep breath then continued. “I think it’s best if we continue this later. Have a good night.”
This time when he left, she didn’t follow him.
She’d made a royal mess of it all, and she had no idea how to fix it.
