Page 97 of The Billionaire's Paradise

Hal grabbed his arm.

For a second he laughed, like all of this was some kind of prank. Then his face turned desperate. “What are you doing?” he hissed at Cal. “Are you saying you’re pulling out? You can’t pull out.”

Cal wrenched his arm free.

“Watch me.”

Hal’s face twisted. “Don’t do this. You don’t understand—I’malready overleveraged. Everything’s tied up in this project. If you back out now, it all collapses. I go under. Ineedyour money.”

Cal didn’t flinch. “You should’ve thought of that before you tried to use me and my family.”

Hal looked around the room like someone about to drown, but nobody moved.

“You’ll bankrupt me,” he whispered.

Tutu chuckled. “I guessnowis when you get to watch it all fall.”

Suddenly Leilani’s fingers gripped my arm like a vise.

“Matt,” she said, breath shallow.

I turned to her—and everything in her expression changed.

“Oh no,” she whispered.

“Leilani? Don’t tell me—”

Then I heard it. The soft splash on the tile floor.

I looked down.

There was a puddle at her feet.

Her fingers tightened around my arm.

“It’s happening,” she said.

“Oh shit! It’s happening? It’s happening!”

I looked down again. Yep. Puddle confirmed.

I shrieked so loud I startledme.

“It’s happening! Everyone—it’s happening!”

The collective gasp was like a record skipping.

Everyone turned to look at us… then froze like statues.

It lasted all of half a second—

Then suddenly everyone sprang into action at the same time.

Tutu and Nakoa were already clearing a path to the door.

Kimo muttered something about towels and a parking lot exit strategy and took off like a linebacker.

“Okay, okay—deep breaths,” I said, gripping Leilani’s hand. “You’re doing amazing. You’ve got this. We’ve got this. We just need to—oh my God, weneed to go.”