Echoes of Unrequited Love

Chapter 62

Not long after we saw Hilary off, Cecilia ducked out early too, leaving me and Wallis in a real

pickle.

“I doubt there’ll be any pulling of funding.” I mused, thinking about Hogan as mentioned by Hilary. “If nothing else, for Cecilia’s sake, he’d likely steady the ship.”

Wallis wasn’t quite on board with my take. “Even if things do steady, so what? Today Cecilia’s throwing us under the bus in front of everyone: tomorrow she could be hijacking our hard work. If you ask me, we better have a Plan B up our sleeves.”

What Wallis meant was we should start scouting for other investors.

But Frank seemed less than keen, so who else could we turn to?

“Simon’s got some connections. I was thinking of getting him to scope things out for us.”

I was a bit taken aback. “You’re still in touch with him?”

Wallis looked a bit sheepish, “Well, you know, he’s got a certain knack for that sort of thing.”

Thinking about the project’s prospects, I agreed, “Alright, let’s give it a shot then.”

For two straight days. Wallis was busy hobnobbing with Simon. Simon was once a big shot in the Oakridge City scene, had a wide network, and even knew a bunch of international capitalists. He agreed to broker some deals for us.

Wallis and I were on tenterhooks, not daring to slack off for a second.

call came through. “Mrs. Zade, Mr. Zade’s asking for you and President Lott

out of the blue.

indirectly. “Did he mention

didn’t say, but judging by Mr. Zade’s

I instantly felt a

knew what kind of game Hogan was playing.

hour later, we showed up at the CEO’s

entered, Hogan was on the phone, rattling off at a clip and throwing around some jargon

didn’t sound too

I exchanged a glance and patiently

and gave us a cursory glance before asking, “Do

1/2

10.04

“Cut to the

Mr. Zade,” I said, without

his eyebrow, and said, “I hear you’ve been courting. new

news had reached

so you’re already looking for a new cash cow while I’m still in the picture?” Hogan scoffed. “Ever consider that

and I had

then we heard Hogan say, “If you lack the commitment, then maybe it’s best

I were blindsided by

we had been looking for

sidelong glance and