Grant’s messages poured across my screen in desperate bursts:
“Evelyn! Every single one of my cards is being declined! What the hell are you doing?! The captain says we’ve been cut off from fuel and we’re dead in the water! Fix this right now!”
I turned my attention away from the screen and gently stroked Chloe’s forehead, brushing a strand of hair away from her face.
Then I stared at the incoming calls that continued ringing without pause.
Grant still believed this was nothing more than jealousy or a marital argument.
He had no idea that being stranded in the middle of the ocean without a single dime… was only the beginning of what was coming.
PART 2
“Evelyn! What the hell is going on?!”
Grant’s voice erupted through the receiver. It was a frantic, muffled whisper filled with agitation, mixed with the pounding bass of club music and the clinking of expensive glassware.
“Every single one of my cards is being declined!” Grant hissed, panic and deep narcissistic shame bleeding through the line. “I’m sitting at Carbone in Miami with six people, and the waiter is staring at me like I’m a common criminal! They’re threatening to call the police over the bill! Did you mess with the accounts again? Is there a fraud alert?!”
He was furious. He wasn’t calling to ask about me. He wasn’t calling to find out how his family was doing. He was completely focused on the public embarrassment caused by his lavish lifestyle suddenly collapsing.
“I blocked them, Grant,” I said simply, my voice barely above a whisper.
The loud music in the background seemed to disappear instantly, leaving a thick, suffocating silence on the line.
“Have you lost your damn mind?!” Grant roared, his arrogance returning immediately as he tried to intimidate me into backing down. “Unblock them right now, Evelyn! I’m entertaining key potential clients for the firm down here! This is business! You’re making me look like a joke in front of investors! Stop acting like a controlling psychopath and reactivate those damn cards right now!”
