Maxim whistles between his teeth—a sound I don’t take as a good sign. It’s the most I’ve ever asked from him, way more than I would normally dare, but the thought of life without Jade, without the sound of little feet tearing up the hardwood floor upstairs as they get ready for school... I can’t even process what that would be like, or why up to now I’ve been okay with missing out on so much of their lives. They’re sound asleep by the time I drag my ass home from work, long gone by the time I roll out of bed. I grumble whenever the noise from their morning routine wakes me, but I never get out of bed to give Jade a hand, or kiss everybody before they take off. Why not? What the hell is wrong with me?

He flicks a quarter inch of ash into a silver ashtray. “Let’s say I float you this cash. Seven hundred thousand to save your family. How would you pay me back? Your restaurant business isn’t exactly booming these days.”

“I’ll put up all my shops. Every last one of them, including the real estate. I own every building but Bolling Way, and I already told you the insurance money for that comes Monday at the latest. That’s only a few days from now. When that happens, every penny I owe you from both loans plus interest will be in your hand by the end of the day. And in the meantime, you can hold the pink slips for all my shops as insurance.”

He waves a crepey hand through the air. “What do I want with a couple of overpriced restaurants halfway to Tennessee? I don’t go outside the perimeter, you know that. And I told you when you bought that Inman Park property, it’s on the wrong side of DeKalb Avenue, which means you can call it Inman Park all you want but really it’s Reynoldstown. Bolling Way is the only one of your properties I’d be even remotely interested in, and you don’t own it.”

“My house, then. A neighbor up the street just sold for two million, with a smaller lot and no pool. Mine’s got to be worth more.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong here, but didn’t you come to me last month for that hundred grand because the bank refused to give you a third mortgage?”

I don’t push back, because it’s true. There’s more debt than equity in our home, way more. If Maxim found out how much, he’d sic his goons on me for even suggesting it.

“You know me, Maxim. I pay my debts on time. And you’ve seen how hard I work. I work my ass off.”