I failed my mother and sister, Returned as a Billionaire

Chapter 9

Kevin stood outside the Meridian Club twenty minutes later with his hands in his pockets and his cheap jacket still carrying the smell of his mother's sickness and the prison yard dust that never quite washes out. The building rose above him like a glass tower built specifically to tell people like him they didn't belong, and the two security guards posted at the entrance looked at him the way people look at a stain on an expensive carpet.

The first guard, a thick-necked man with a radio clipped to his belt, stepped directly into Kevin's path before he could reach the door.

"Stop right there." His lip curled. "Private event. Members only."

Kevin looked at him.

"I need to get inside."

The second guard, younger but trying just as hard to look important, laughed through his nose. "You need to get back to whatever Goodwill store you crawled out of. Look at yourself, man. You think we let people dressed like homeless junkies walk into a place like this?"

"My sister is inside."

"I don't care if your whole family tree is inside." The first guard crossed his arms over his chest. "You're not getting past this door smelling like a dumpster and looking like you just got out of county lockup."

Kevin reached into his jacket and pulled out the black card Vivienne had pressed into his palm that morning.

He held it up between two fingers.

Both guards went very, very still.

The first guard's face drained of color so fast it looked like someone had pulled a plug. His eyes locked onto the card, specifically onto the silver Harvard Company crest embossed in the corner, and his hand reached out slowly like he was approaching a live grenade.

"Is that real?" His voice had dropped to a whisper.

Kevin said nothing. He just kept holding the card.

The second guard leaned in to look, and when he saw it up close, he took two steps backward and grabbed his radio so fast he almost dropped it.

"Sir." The first guard's entire demeanor had changed. His shoulders were hunched now, his head lowered, his voice careful and small. "I apologize. I didn't realize. Please. Go inside. Take as long as you need."

Kevin walked past them without a word.

Behind him, the second guard was already talking into his radio in a hushed, frantic tone, reporting to someone higher up the chain that a man carrying a top-level executive black card had just entered the building and they needed confirmation immediately in case it was a forgery.

Fifteen miles across the city, inside the glass-walled executive office on the forty-second floor of Harvard Company headquarters, Vivienne Ashford sat behind a desk made of black marble with her assistant standing across from her holding a tablet and a leather portfolio stuffed with contracts.

"Miss Ashford." The assistant, a sharp-eyed woman named Claire, tapped the screen. "The final partnership list. Do you want to review it one more time before we send it to Mr. Morrison for approval?"

Vivienne glanced up from the financial report she had been reading and held out one hand. Claire placed the tablet into it.

The list of company names scrolled across the screen, each one representing months of negotiations and millions of dollars in potential investment. Vivienne's eyes moved down the list with the detached efficiency of someone who made these kinds of decisions before breakfast.

Then one name caught her eye.

Reed Enterprises.

She stopped scrolling.

Her finger hovered over the name for a moment, and behind her eyes, something shifted. She had investigated Kevin Hale's background thoroughly after her grandfather told her about the arranged marriage. She knew everything there was to know about his life before prison. His wife. His mother. His sister. His failed attempts to build something stable before the world caved in around him.

And she knew this company, Reed Enterprises, belonged to the woman who had thrown divorce papers at his feet that very morning.

The woman who had called him an insect.

Vivienne's mouth curved at one corner, though the smile never reached her eyes.

Before she could decide what to do with that name, her phone buzzed on the desk. The caller ID read Meridian Club Security.

She answered without speaking.

"Miss Ashford." The voice on the other end was nervous and formal. "We have someone here who just entered the building with one of your executive black cards. We need to confirm the card is legitimate and not forged. The individual is a man, early thirties, wearing civilian clothes. He didn't give a name."

Vivienne sat back in her chair.

Kevin.

Her smile widened.

"The card is real." Her voice was cool and certain. "Let him go wherever he wants. Do not stop him. Do not question him. If anyone interferes with him, fire them."

"Understood, Miss Ashford."

She hung up and looked back at the tablet in her hand, at the name Reed Enterprises still glowing on the screen.

Blake Morrison was at the Meridian Club right now, meeting with the final partnership candidates and deciding which ones would receive Harvard Company's investment. Which meant Olivia Reed was almost certainly there as well, performing for him like a trained dog begging for scraps.

And now Kevin had just walked into that same building.

Vivienne set the tablet down on the desk and stood up, smoothing the front of her suit jacket with both hands.

"Claire." She picked up her phone and her keys. "Clear my schedule for the next two hours. I'm going to the Meridian Club."

Claire blinked. "Ma'am, you have the board meeting in forty minutes."

"Reschedule it." Vivienne was already walking toward the door. "Something more interesting just came up."

She stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the parking garage, and as the doors slid shut, her reflection stared back at her from the polished steel. Her face was calm. Unreadable. But behind her eyes, a decision had already been made.

Whatever happened to Olivia Reed's partnership opportunity was no longer in Vivienne's hands.

It was in Kevin's.