Chapter 2: Goodnight, Richard
I was almost at the door when I heard him behind me.
"Wait."
I didn't stop.
"Ms.
Osei.
Please."
That made me turn.
Not the word.
The tone.
Richard Hargrove didn't use that tone.
In three months of negotiation, I had never once heard him say please.
He crossed the corridor in six steps, phone still in his hand, face the color of old paper.
"There's been a misunderstanding," he said.
"There hasn't," I said.
"You don't understand what's at stake—"
"I understand exactly what's at stake.
I built the structure that was going to save it."
He glanced back toward his mother.
Claudette was standing where we'd left her, watching us with an expression I couldn't quite read.
Not embarrassment.
Something closer to calculation.
"My mother didn't know who you were," Richard said quietly.
"She knew I was a person," I said.
"That was enough."
His jaw tightened.
Then his phone buzzed again.
He looked down.
I watched his face change a second time.
"That's our legal team," he said.
"They're saying the escrow window closes at midnight."
"Yes," I said.
"It does."
"Ms.
Osei—"
"Goodnight, Richard."
I pushed through the door.
Behind me, I heard Claudette's voice carry across the marble.
"Richard.
Who is she?"
He didn't answer her either.
---
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What Diana did next — and what the Hargroves discovered about who they had just insulted — is more than anyone in that ballroom was prepared for.
Read the full story in the link below.
