After My Murder I Returned

The Caldwell Problem

Chapter 5: The Caldwell Problem

Day 28 started with an email.

From: Michael Caldwell

To: Elena Torres

CC: Nathan Reed

Subject: Coffee?

Elena —

Heard Reed Capital got to you first. Congrats. But, uh, I think we both know Damien’s play here. He doesn’t do tech. He does golf courses.

I do tech. My fund is all in on Series B. No board seats, no micromanaging, just capital and connections. Let’s talk. Off the record.

—M

Nathan read it three times. Then a fourth. His coffee went cold.

In the other life, Caldwell got this meeting. And he got NexPay. And Nathan got nothing except a tabloid photo of Melanie at Caldwell’s launch party, on Adonis’s arm.

Not this time.

He forwarded it to Damien. No subject line. Just: ?

Damien replied in six minutes: My office. Now.

---

Reed Ventures. 9 AM. Damien didn’t look up when Nathan walked in.

“You saw it,” Damien said. Flat.

“Yeah. I, uh... I saw it.” Nathan sat. “He’s moving fast.”

“He always does.” Damien finally looked up. “Caldwell’s a snake. But he’s a smart snake. He smells blood in the water.”

“Is there blood?”

Damien’s mouth twitched. “Not yet. But Elena’s young. She’s, mmm, she’s loyal until someone offers her more loyalty plus a zero.”

Nathan leaned forward. “So what do we do? Because I’m not, like, I’m not losing her to him. I can’t.”

I won’t survive it twice.

Damien studied him. “We? Since when is it we, Nathan?”

Nathan froze. “I... I mean, Reed Capital. Us. You and me. I just—”

“You just signed your first real deal and now you think you’re, uh, you’re the CEO?” Damien’s voice was ice. “You don’t get to say we until you’ve bled for it. Understood?”

Nathan’s face went hot. “Yes. Sorry. I—”

“Good.” Damien stood. “Because Caldwell doesn’t want NexPay. He wants to embarrass me. And he’s using you to do it. He thinks you’re the weak link. The, mmm, the spoiled kid who got lucky.”

“I’m not,” Nathan said, too fast.

“Then prove it.” Damien tossed a folder across the desk. CALDWELL CAPITAL – INTERNAL. “He’s leveraged. Overextended in crypto. One bad quarter and he’s done. Elena needs to know that. Before she takes his coffee.”

Nathan picked up the folder. “You want me to, like... tell her?”

“I want you to handle it. You wanted a seat at the table, Nathan. This is the table. Don’t, uh, don’t choke on it.”

Nathan stood. “I won’t.”

He was at the door when Damien said, “Your hand.”

Nathan stopped. “It’s fine.”

“It’s bandaged. Again.”

“Yeah. I, um... I’m clumsy.”

Damien huffed. “You’re a lot of things. Clumsy isn’t one of them. Sophia’s worried.”

Nathan’s throat closed. “I’ll... I’ll call her.”

“Do more than call.”

---

Day 30 was Sophia’s ambush.

Nathan. Lunch. Thursday. The Hay-Adams. No excuses.

It wasn’t a request. It was a maternal subpoena.

Nathan showed up at 12:15. The Hay-Adams was, like, painfully old DC. White tablecloths, senators, the kind of place Melanie used to call “aspirational.”

Sophia was already there. Pearls. Navy dress. The one she wore to charity boards and funerals.

She kissed his cheek. “You’re thin.”

“Uh, hi, Mom. I’m fine.”

“Sit. Eat. You look, mmm, you look tired.”

They ordered. Sophia got the salad. Nathan got the steak, because he knew it would make her happy.

Halfway through the main course, she said, “Jonah told me about law school.”

Nathan choked on water. “He what?”

“He called me. To thank me. Said you were ‘paying it forward.’” Sophia’s eyes were sharp. “Since when do you pay for other people’s tuition, Nathan?”

“I, uh... since now. He’s my best friend. He deserves—”

“He does.” She cut him off. Not mean. Just final. “But you don’t do things for other people. Not without, mmm, not without an angle. So what’s the angle?”

Nathan put his fork down. “There isn’t one. I just... I realized I’ve been an ass. For, like, years. And I’m trying to fix it.”

Sophia watched him. Then she reached across the table and took his hand. The one without bandages.

“Okay,” she said. Soft. “Okay, sweetheart. I believe you.”

Nathan’s eyes burned. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She squeezed his hand. “But you’re gonna eat all of that steak. And you’re gonna tell me what’s really going on. Because you’re, um, you’re scaring me a little.”

Nathan opened his mouth.

“Mrs. Reed? Oh my God, hi!”

Melanie Rivers.

She was there. At their table. Red lipstick, white dress, the “oops I didn’t mean to interrupt” smile.

Sophia blinked. “I’m sorry, do I...?”

“Melanie,” Nathan said. Flat. Cold. “What are you doing here?”

Melanie’s smile didn’t drop. “I, uh, I was just having lunch with my stepdad. Douglas? He’s on the, like, the hospital board? And I saw you and I just had to say hi. You were at the gala, right? No, wait, you weren’t. I heard you were sick?”

Sophia looked between them. “Nate?”

“We’ve never met,” Nathan said. His voice was ice. “I don’t know you. And my mom doesn’t know you. So, um... leave.”

Melanie’s face did something complicated. Shock. Then hurt. Then the thing she always did — calculation. “Oh. I... I must’ve mistaken you for someone else. I’m so sorry. I’m, like, so embarrassed.”

She touched Sophia’s arm. “You have a lovely son, Mrs. Reed. He’s, um, he’s very... protective.”

She walked away.

Sophia waited until she was gone. “Nathan. Who was that?”

“No one.” Nathan’s hands were fists under the table. “She’s no one, Mom. I swear.”

Sophia didn’t believe him. But she didn’t push.

Not yet.

---

Day 33 was Jonah.

Nathan. We need to talk. My apartment. Now.

Jonah’s place was a law school shoebox. Textbooks everywhere. Coffee cups. One window that looked at a brick wall.

He was pacing when Nathan got there.

“Uh, hey,” Nathan said. “You, um... you okay?”

“No.” Jonah shoved his laptop toward him. “Explain this.”

Screen: REED CAPITAL GROUP – INTERNAL ACQUISITIONS

ASSET: RIVERS HOLDINGS – DEBT PORTFOLIO

STATUS: ACQUIRING – 87%

Nathan went still. “How did you...?”

“I’m in law school, Nate. I, like, I know how to use PACER. And my dad’s friend works at the SEC.” Jonah’s voice was shaking. “You’re buying Douglas Rivers’s debt. Why?”

Nathan closed the laptop. “It’s business.”

“Bullshit.” Jonah stepped back. “Bullshit, Nathan. That’s the guy Melanie’s stepdad, right? The one from the country club? The one Damien told you to stay away from? So why are you, like, why are you buying his loans?”

Because he paid Adonis to kill me.

“I have a plan,” Nathan said.

“Oh, a plan. Great. Awesome. Just like the last time you had a plan and it ended with you, uh, with you broke and alone and—” Jonah stopped. “Wait.”

He stared at Nathan.

“You know her. Melanie. Don’t you?”

Nathan didn’t answer.

“Nate.” Jonah’s voice dropped. “Please tell me you don’t know her.”

“I met her,” Nathan said. Quiet. “At Whole Foods. And, um... at lunch with my mom.”

“And?”

“And nothing. I walked away. Both times.”

Jonah ran a hand through his hair. “Okay. Okay, uh... okay. So you’re not... you’re not with her.”

“No.”

“Then why are you buying her stepdad’s debt?”

Nathan looked at his best friend. Really looked. No liver failure. No funeral. Just Jonah. Scared for him.

“Because,” Nathan said, “he’s, um... he’s a bad man, Jo. And bad men shouldn’t have leverage.”

Jonah was quiet for a long time. Then: “You’re scaring me, Nate. You’re, like, you’re talking like Damien. And that’s, uh... that’s not always a good thing.”

“I know.” Nathan rubbed his face. “Just... trust me. Can you do that? Can you trust me?”

Jonah exhaled. “Yeah. Yeah, I can. But if you, like, if you start going down some revenge spiral, I’m dragging you out. I don’t care how much money you have. Deal?”

“Deal.”

---

Day 35 was Elena.

Nathan didn’t call. He showed up. NexPay’s office was a WeWork with whiteboards and too much kombucha.

Elena Torres was twenty-six, hoodie, laptop stickers, and eyes that missed nothing.

“Mr. Reed,” she said. “Uh, to what do I owe the...?”

“Coffee,” Nathan said. He held up two cups. “Heard you like it black. No, like, no bullshit.”

She took the cup. Suspicious. “I do. But I also, um, I also know Michael Caldwell wants a meeting. And I know you know that.”

“I do.” Nathan sat. “So I figured I’d get here first.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s gonna offer you more money. And no board seat. And he’s gonna tell you Damien Reed doesn’t get tech.” Nathan sipped his coffee. “He’s right about the last one. But he’s wrong about me.”

Elena raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? And what do you get, Nathan?”

“I get to, um... I get to not watch you make the same mistake I did.” He leaned forward. “Caldwell’s leveraged to his eyeballs. Crypto. NFTs. He’s one margin call from bankruptcy. You take his money, you take his risk. You take mine, you take Reed Capital. We’re old money, Elena. Boring money. Safe money.”

Elena was quiet. Then: “You, uh, you did your homework.”

“I do that now.”

She studied him. “Why do you care so much? It’s 2M. That’s, like, couch money for you.”

Because last time I lost you, and I lost everything.

“Because,” Nathan said, “you’re gonna be worth 50 billion. And I want to be the guy who said yes first. Not the guy who, um, who said yes too late.”

Elena held out her hand. “Okay. No Caldwell. But you, like, you better not be Damien 2.0. I don’t do micromanaging.”

Nathan shook it. “I don’t do micromanaging. I do, uh, I do winning.”

She smiled. Small. Real. “Good. Because I do too.”

---

Day 36 ended with a text.

Unknown Number: She’s still asking about you.

No name. But Nathan knew.

Douglas.

He deleted it. Blocked the number.

Then he called Amber Evans’s office. Left a message.

“Uh, hi. This is Nathan Reed. The, um, the idiot who punches walls? I, uh... I just wanted to say thanks. For the stitches. And the, like, the lecture. I took the antibiotics. All of them. So... yeah. Thanks.”

He hung up.

He didn’t expect her to call back.

But for the first time in two lives, Nathan Reed went to sleep without thinking about Melanie Rivers.

-