Chapter 2
Clara put an apple pie into a box.
“Probably.”
“That man could buy this whole block.”
Clara handed her the pie.
“Then he can afford to wait his turn.”
Across the city that afternoon, Damian sat behind a walnut desk forty floors above the Chicago River.
Matteo Russo, his closest adviser since Damian was twenty-four, stood opposite him.
“Clara Bennett,” Damian said.
Matteo waited.
“Find out who she is.”
A faint smile appeared on Matteo’s face.
“You were refused.”
“I was.”
“By a baker.”
“Yes.”
“A baker threw you out.”
Damian looked up.
Matteo cleared his throat.
“I’ll have a report tomorrow.”
The report was surprisingly thin.
Thirty-two years old.
Unmarried.
No criminal record.
No wealthy relatives.
No mysterious investors.
No wealthy boyfriend waiting in the shadows.
She had inherited Bennett’s Bakery from her grandmother three years earlier.
She employed six people.
She paid them before paying herself.
She hosted free baking classes for neighborhood children two evenings a week.
And she was ninety-four days behind on a commercial loan.
Damian stopped on that page.
“How far from default?”
“Maybe six weeks.”
“Why?”
“Rising property tax. Equipment repairs. Ingredient costs. She also gives away a ridiculous amount of product.”
Damian leaned back.
May you like
“She rejected a check that could have saved her business?”
“Yes.”
