Page 2

She cocked her head, trying to see a lemon-yellow dress in a shop window from a different angle as Sam clicked away on his computer.

“Ah,” he finally said.

“Ah? 'Ah' as in you'll get me a new card straight away? 'Ah' as in it's not screwed up?”

“'Ah' as in there's a simple reason your card won't work.”

“Which is?” she asked, sucking at the smoothie again and grimacing.

“There's no money in your account.”

Only now did her stomach tighten a little. No money. How was that possible? A question that she promptly asked Sam.

“I don't know what to tell you, Had. It's nothing to do with the bank. I suggest that you take this up with your father.”

Hadley straightened her head, forgot about the yellow dress and thanked Sam as politely as she could. She was a little shaky. Had her father gone broke? Was there something serious going on that she didn't know about?

She looked at the shockingly green smoothie in its plastic cup and wondered if this was her last ever smoothie. What if it was? And she'd chosen kale and pomegranate. What a memory to have.

“Out of the way, miss,” a man shouted as a skateboard rumbled down the sidewalk behind her.

She jumped to one side to let the boarder past. Then she ditched her potentially-last-ever smoothie into the nearest trash can and prepared herself for the walk uptown to her father's office. A five minute ride by a cab that she couldn't currently pay for.

Her stomach squeezed itself into a ball and she wondered just how she was supposed to handle being broke.

THE HEAD OFFICES of Rains Enterprises were spacious and light, the early summer sun gleaming through huge windows as Hadley marched across the foyer and buzzed herself into an elevator.

On the way she'd decided that there was probably some oversight somewhere and her father would be exactly the person to work things out and everything was going to be okay. She was an optimist, she knew that, but she couldn't help but think that everything would work out.

It always had before.

“Is he in?” she asked her father's assistant when she reached his desk.

He grinned at her. “He's in but not in a great mood, you sure you want to enter the lion's den?”

She grinned back. “Yep.” There was no way her father would be mad with her, he never was.

She waited until the door buzzed and then strode into the large office. “Dad.”

“Hadley, what a nice surprise.” He stood up and kissed her cheek. “What can I do for you?”

Something wasn't quite right here and she couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was. “How's business?” she asked.

“Booming.”

“Uh-huh.” She scratched her nose. At least the family wasn't broke then. “Uh, I've encountered a slight problem.”

He gestured for her to sit on the couch and then sat down himself. “Let me guess, your bank card has stopped working.”

She nodded and sat.

“I wanted to talk to you about this last Friday, but you stood me up for dinner.”

Hadley pulled a face. She had stood him up, that much was true. But an offer to helicopter out to a private game of disc golf didn't come every day. “Sorry,” she said, honestly meaning it.

“And I'm sorry, Had. But it's time to be cruel to be kind.”

She sat up straighter. “What does that mean?”