Page 89 of Bloom in Darkness

“No.” Lorcan pulls one final sheet from his folder. “You did owe legitimate money at different points—the original advance, the documented medical advance, the rent advance, plus a few smaller items we can support.”

His finger moves farther down the page. “Once we remove unsupported fees, duplicate interest, misapplied payments, and anything outside the contract, the remaining enforceable balance is six thousand four hundred eighty dollars.”

I stare at him. Six thousand four hundred eighty is still money. It’s rent. It’s months of groceries. But it isn’t almost ninety thousand dollars hanging over everything I do.

I push my chair closer to the table. “Show me.”

Lorcan walks me through the last page slowly, going back twice when I stop him. Sabine interrupts once, and I tell her to wait. She actually does.

Once I understand where the number comes from, I sit back and let out the breath I’ve been holding. “Okay.”

Caelan puts his coffee down. “We’ll settle the sixty-four eighty today.”

I turn toward him slowly. “What do you mean, settle it today?”

Across the room, the unfamiliar Alpha sets down his tablet, and I turn fully toward Caelan. “What did you do?”

The bastard looks far too pleased with himself. “Remember when I told Sabine I’d start looking into the business if she kept using it against you?”

Sabine’s attention snaps toward him as Caelan gestures toward the other table. “I looked.”

The Alpha crosses the lounge and offers me his hand. “Julian Cross.”

I shake it. “Astra.”

“I know.” Julian takes the empty chair beside Forrest. “I operate two hospitality venues downtown and one performance space on the east side. Caelan brought me an opportunity.”

Sabine laughs, sharp and disbelieving. “My club is not an opportunity for the Kings to pick apart.”

“It isn’t for the Kings,” Julian says. “It’s for me.”

Sabine stops turning the page while Forrest angles his laptop toward her and walks through what Caelan found: the commercial loan coming due, vendor balances that keep rolling forward, an investor note with a deadline attached, and lease obligations that get ugly if revenue slips. None of it means the club is worthless. It means Sabine needs cash and time she doesn’t have.

She leans back from the table. “You had no right to go through my business.”

“Most of this is public or came from records you produced after Lorcan’s request,” Forrest says. “Julian also spoke to the lender and the investor. They would rather be paid than wait for this to get worse.”

Julian slides a term sheet across the table. “The club has value. Good location. Existing audience. Staff worth keeping. Infrastructure I’d rather buy than build. I’m not offering you a favor. I’m offering what I think the business is worth with those obligations attached.”

Lorcan taps the paper. “The secured business debt is satisfied at closing. Specified vendor obligations are paid. Caelan’s side settles Astra’s legitimate six thousand four hundred eighty today, and that payment is credited against the purchase price at closing. The remaining proceeds go to you after the listed obligations.”

“You can say no,” Julian adds. “Then the loan, the investor note, the vendors, and the lease are still yours next week. My offer doesn’t create those problems. It gives you a clean way to resolve them.”

I turn toward Caelan. “You didn’t tell me any of this.”

“Because you would’ve spent three days worrying that I was buying a nightclub.”

I narrow my eyes. “Are you buying a nightclub?”

Caelan doesn’t even hesitate. “No.”

Bryn drops his head like he suddenly finds the pastry plate fascinating, but I can feel him laughing beside me.

Sabine finally picks up the term sheet. She gets halfway down the first page before her control breaks. “This is because of him.” She points at me. “You are destroying a business because you wanted to fuck one dancer.”

Caelan starts to move beside me, but I catch his wrist under the table.

Sabine keeps going. “I made him valuable. I gave him work when no one else would have handed him that kind of money. I covered rent. Medical bills. Costumes. I put him in front of people who paid to see him, and this is what I get back.”