Free The View from Suite 2100 by Tess Allen Page B

curious, but I’d stalled, promising him I’d get back with him in a few hours.
    I picked up the phone and called Drew. It was time we had a long talk. He picked up immediately.
    “Rowena. I was trying to give you the space you asked for, but I’m going nuts over here. We need to work this out, baby.”
    Yeah, right , I thought. We really do need to work this out !
    “Drew, I was calling you for a reason. Something crazy is happening. Out of the blue my bank called my loan. I think something fishy might be going on. Do you know…”
    “Called your loan? You’ve got to be kidding? You bank with Connect One, don’t you?”
    “Yes, but I’ve already talked to my lawyer about that, what I was calling to find out…”
    He laughed. “Forget the lawyer. You’ve got connections – no pun intended – real connections with Connect One Bank, baby.”
    “What do you mean?
    “Mother was just elected to their board of directors last month. Let me let her know what’s going on so she can get it straightened out. This will be the perfect opportunity for her to make up to you for behaving so badly. I talked to her this morning and she was telling me that she really, really wanted to make up for what happened.”
    Oh my God! As the words rolled from his mouth it locked together like a Chinese puzzle. It was Gabrilla Ardmore who had done this to me, and she’d gotten help from the one person who could possibly give her a little ammunition, my accountant Sandra. And it was me, when I stopped by and told Sandra yesterday that I was on my way to lunch with Drew and Gabrilla, who had set this all in motion. No doubt Sandra had called Gabrilla to check the validity of what I’d told her; that Drew and I were engaged, and Gabrilla had expressed her deep disapproval, especially after the episode in the restaurant, and they had hatched their plan from there.
    “Drew, do you know Sandra Durante?”
    He grew quiet before he answered. “Steer clear of her, Rowena. She’s bad news. I used to go out with her. It wasn’t a good breakup,” he hesitated before continuing. “Why are you asking?”
    “But your mother liked her for you, didn’t she Drew?”
    “How do you know that? What’s going on Rowena?”
    I laughed and shook my head. “Tell you later – baby.”
     
    Chapter Sixteen
     
    By Friday evening my attorney, Lincoln, wanted me to file criminal charges against both Gabrilla and Sandra; something about collusion and conspiracy as he described it. I’m human. I thought about it. I spent Thursday night going through all my files and papers, tracking back all my interaction with Sandra so that I could provide a paper trail to build a case, but, I decided that I’m not going there. I am not going to drag them into court, drag all of my business or theirs out in the open. It is not worth that to me.
    Friday was not the horrible event I had thought it would be. Carolyn buzzed into my office about 4:30, just before the close of the business day, and told me that Delmar Cade at Connect One Bank was calling to let me know the loan had been reinstated. He wanted to speak to me, but I declined. I’m going to take my time returning his call. The next time I speak to him it will probably be to let him know I’m paying off the loan and moving my business elsewhere.
    I don’t think Delmar has any idea that I let him personally off the hook though. The marching orders he got to call me just filtered down to him in a memo or something no doubt, but the bank president, Arnold Bates, and the bank’s attorneys and a few of the board members had been behind locked doors all day in conference calls trying to save the bank’s ass and me as a client, trying to make stupid Delmar the scapegoat, not wanting to own up to how they were manipulated by Gabrilla Ardmore and the Ardmore money.
    Connect One had no choice but to reinstate my loan once we started to uncover the truth, Lincoln advised me, since there were no grounds to have called