I took the stairs to my father’s floor, needing the time to compose myself.The hallway was dark, his office door slightly ajar.
Strange.Papa never left his office unlocked.
I pushed the door open.“Papa?”
Empty.The desk lamp cast a pool of yellow light across stacks of paperwork.Nothing unusual, except…
A folder sat open on his desk.Not tucked away in a drawer like everything else.Just sitting there, like he’d been interrupted mid-review.
I knew I shouldn’t look.
I looked anyway.
APEX LENDING was printed across the top of the first page.Debt Collection Notice.
My blood went cold.
I flipped through the pages with trembling fingers.Loan agreement.Interest calculations.Collateral assessment.
The hotel.Our hotel.Listed as collateral against a twenty-million-dollar loan.
Twenty million dollars.
I sank into my father’s chair, the pages blurring before my eyes.This couldn’t be real.We were fine.We’d always been fine.The hotel was profitable, the guests kept coming, we had staff and traditions and a century of history.
But the numbers didn’t lie.The loan had been taken out three years ago.The interest had been compounding.And now, according to this notice, a payment had been missed.
The entire balance was due immediately.
Twenty million dollars we didn’t have.
And at the bottom of every page, a signature I didn’t recognize.Some corporate officer from a company I’d never heard of.
Apex Lending.The name meant nothing to me.Just another faceless financial institution, another predator circling a wounded animal.
They owned our debt.
They owned us.
Shoving the papers back into the folder, I headed for the elevator.Dad and I needed to talk.
The penthouse was quiet when I stepped inside.Too quiet.
“Papa?”
He was on the floor just inside the hallway.One hand clutched his chest.The other reached toward me, trembling.
“Lena…”
“Papa!”I dropped to my knees beside him.His face was gray, his lips tinged blue.“Someone help!I need help!”
Marjorie came running from the kitchen.Her scream echoed off the marble floors as she saw him crumpled there.
“Call an ambulance!”I grabbed my father’s hand.It was cold.So cold, when he’d always been so warm.“Stay with me, Papa.Please, please stay with me.”
His eyes found mine.For one moment, I saw something there I’d never seen before.
Regret.
