Chapter 12 - The Price of the Truth
Sloane asked to meet Nate in a public diner outside town. Owen came with him and took a booth within sight. Sloane wore jeans and no makeup. Nate hated how familiar she looked.
"You humiliated me in front of everyone I know," she said.
"You arranged a marriage to take my money."
"I said cruel things."
"You said specific things. You told Graham to wait six months."
She stared into her untouched coffee. "I was going to convince you to put the Riverside Hotel into a joint development company. Graham knew the structure. Then I would leave and claim my share."
"You would have left those families without repairs, too?"
"That wasn't supposed to happen. Graham said Harbor Light would recover the money before anyone noticed."
"And you believed him because he paid you three hundred thousand dollars."
Sloane looked up, stung. "You think everything I felt was fake."
"I think you let me believe it was real because it helped you."
Her face crumpled. Nate wanted to comfort her from habit. Instead, he folded his hands beneath the table.
"Tell the truth to investigators," he said. "Give them the documents."
"Graham has things on me. Contracts, messages, the money."
"Then get a lawyer. I won't bargain away Rachel's future to make this easier for you."
Sloane pulled a small brass key from her purse and slid it across the table. "Storage unit twenty-nine. The blue folder isn't the original. It's a copy. Graham keeps the real file there."
"Why help us now?"
"Because yesterday he told me the stairs at Willow Court were never repaired. He knew someone could die."
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Nate reached for the key, but Sloane caught his hand.
"If you go there, don't trust the man at the front desk," she whispered. "Graham owns the whole place."
