“I’m engaged, Nate.” I could feel his breath. “I’m not doing this wearing his ring.”
He stepped back. “Then I’ll wait.”
When he went inside, his jacket was still on me. The envelope was still in the pocket.
I shouldn’t have opened it. I did.
“Nate, $2 million for Kessler Construction. Pull out of the joint bid before Friday and it’s yours. L.”
He was in the doorway when I looked up.
“Take her money, then,” I said. “You were always going to.”
“Jess. Turn the page over.”
“Get off my job site.”
He packed his truck in ten minutes.
“Friday,” he said. “Just come Friday.”
Friday the hearing room was full. Bryce held my hand. Lauren sat across the aisle, glowing.
Ruth opened the bids. “Vance Builders. Three hundred eighty-one thousand, nine hundred.”
Five hundred under my fake number. The way Vance always beat me.
“Harlan-Kessler joint bid. Three hundred sixty-one thousand.”
Lauren went white. Bryce’s hand went stiff in mine.
Nate stood up in the back row. “Commissioner, I’d like to enter a document. Ms. Vance’s written offer to pay me two million dollars to walk away. And my notarized answer, same date. No.”
The second page. The one I never turned over.
I stood too. “And I’d like to enter a trail camera video. Ms. Vance, collecting my bid from my fiancé at 11:42 p.m. Plus the only copy that ever said $382,400. I gave it to one person.”
Every head turned to Bryce.
“Jess, babe, I can explain…”
I slid the ring off and set it in his palm. “Explain it to your bank’s compliance office. That was a client loan file.”
Ruth didn’t blink. “Vance Builders is disqualified. This goes to the county attorney. The grant goes to Harlan-Kessler.”
Lauren grabbed her bag and walked out alone. Bryce sat there holding the ring, his face the color of the paper.
Nate waited by the door.
“You knew about him,” I said. “Since night three.”
“I wanted you to have proof, not my word.” He swallowed. “And I didn’t want to be the guy who wins because you got hurt.”
I held up my bare hand in front of everybody. “No ring. You said you’d wait.”
“Six years,” he said. “I can do six more seconds.”
He didn’t need them. I kissed him first.
The new sign went up on the Marlowe House in March. Harlan & Kessler Restoration.
My name first. His right under it, exactly where he said he wanted it.
The end · Your turn
Was Jess right to throw Nate out over that envelope, or should she have turned the page first?
Tell us what you think in the comments on Facebook.
