Chapter 5 - WHAT HIS BUSINESS WAS REALLY WORTH
Grant’s company had not failed because he was lazy.
That would have been easier.
He had built Caldwell Heating & Air from one used van and a rented storage unit into a business with eight employees and contracts across Franklin and Delaware counties.
Then he expanded too quickly.
Two commercial clients delayed payment.
A former employee filed a workers’ compensation claim after falling from a ladder.
Material costs rose.
Grant financed new equipment instead of shrinking.
Then he borrowed again to cover the first borrowing.
Melissa showed me the numbers.
She worked as the company’s bookkeeper three days a week and taught preschool the other two.
“He kept saying the spring contracts would fix it,” she said.
We sat in a diner in Worthington where nobody knew us.
“Did you know he was using my house?”
“I knew about the loan.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
She picked at the paper wrapper around her straw.
“I thought you knew.”
“Why?”
“Because he had your signature.”
I nearly laughed.
It came out as something uglier.
“Everybody keeps saying that.”
Melissa finally looked at me.
“Rachel, I saw you sign something once.”
My stomach tightened.
“When?”
“At the hospital.”
“What hospital?”
“Your glucose test. Back in March.”
I remembered.
Grant had met me in the waiting room after I drank the syrupy glucose solution. I had been nauseated and irritated because the clinic was running behind.
He had handed me his tablet.
Two signatures, he’d said. Insurance stuff.
I signed without reading.
One with my finger.
One by clicking a box.
At the time, Grant kissed the top of my head and told me I worried too much.
Melissa had been there because she happened to be dropping off Grant’s truck keys.
“You saw what was on the screen?”
“No.”
“So you don’t know what I signed.”
“No.”
I pressed both palms against the table.
For the first time, the bank documents made horrible sense.
Maybe Grant had not forged my signature.
Maybe he had obtained it.
That distinction mattered legally.
Emotionally, it changed nothing.
Melissa wiped her eyes.
“He was desperate.”
“Desperate people ask.”
“He thought you’d say no.”
“I would have.”
“Because you hated the business.”
“No. Because he was risking the house where his child was going to sleep.”
Melissa flinched.
I regretted the sharpness immediately.
Then she reached into her purse.
“I should’ve told you something sooner.”
She placed a small company fuel card on the table.
Grant had given it to her two months earlier.
“Why?”
“He told me not to use the business account anymore without asking him first.”
“That’s not unusual if money was tight.”
“That isn’t the part that bothered me.”
She looked at me.
“He said if you called asking questions, I was supposed to tell you the company was fine.”
Someone I trusted had lied to protect Grant.
I thought Melissa was admitting it.
Then she said, “I refused.”
May you like
Her next words changed the shape of the betrayal.
“But somebody else didn’t.”
