The billionaire's reluctant mistress

Chapter 11: Difficult choice

Chapter 11:

Rachel took a deep breath. But before she could get out of her seat, the phone rang. She immediately picked it up: "Hello, this is L&R real estate."

“Hello, I am calling from the Bank for Investment and Development of London, is Mr Albanese there?”

“Hello sir, have you made an appointment with Mr Albanese?”

“No, we haven’t. But there is a problem with your loan application, we are temporarily unable to process it. We need to talk to Mr. Albanese.”

“Yes, please wait a moment, I will transfer the call right away.”

She quickly dialed Dalziel's extension number: "Mr Albanese, there is a call from the Bank for Investment and Development of London, they want to discuss the loan with you."

“Let me talk to them!”

She switched the phone and then hung up. Later, she couldn't help but notice the little light on the corner of the optima had been lit up for nearly 30 minutes. That was quite a long call. When she brought in coffee again, she saw Dalziel staring blankly at the window, his eyes dark and his face melancholic. Rachel could clearly see the problem. The construction of the new project was about to start and the company's capital had all been poured into it. If the bank refused to lend them money, it would directly push them into a dilemma. Not wanting to disturb him, she gently placed the coffee cup on the table, intending to go back out.

He suddenly asked: “Where is Sabrina?”

“She and some others have gone to the city's Department of Construction.”

He nodded and then continued: "Please contact Mr. Roberbs, the Director of the Development Bank. I need to discuss something with him."

"Sure."

After a pause, he said again, “I want to talk to you too but we have to deal with the banking problem first.”

It took a long time dealing with Director Roberbs' secretary to make an arrangement. That very afternoon, she and Dalziel went to the Development Bank to meet with the director but, fifteen minutes before the appointment, Roberbs said that he was busy and told them to wait. They waited for two hours before his secretary showed up again and told them to schedule another meeting as the bank director was unable to see them today. Rachel felt dreadful as she was the one who had contacted them. The man clearly wanted to mess with them. She should have called Director Roberbs’ secretary to confirm again before coming.

She thought Dalziel would be angry but he wasn’t. He sat upright on the sofa in the waiting room, lighting a cigarette. His posture was elegant; he leaned back slightly with one arm gently resting on the arm of the sofa, the other casually hovering in the smoke.

“Mr Albanese, I'm really sorry, it's a part of my fault.”

“Call me Dalziel.” He corrected her, and then continued, “This has nothing to do with you. Some people like to put themselves on a high pedestal to show their power.”

His voice was neither angry nor reproachful, it was just low and cold. A lot of people would be offended, but there was no emotion on his face. One the way back to the office, Dalziel was busy making phone calls. When they got back, Rachel found Kyle waiting at the office.

"Hello beautiful, it's nice to see you again."

“Mr.Schuyler!” Rachel greeted him in surprise.

Before Kyle could kiss Rachel on the cheek, Dalziel interjected, “Thanks for coming, Kyle, I really need to talk to you. Rachel, can you get Kyle something to drink?”

“Sure.”

The two men entered the room and closed the door. Rachel prepared a cup of coffee with milk for their guest. While waiting for the water to boil, Rachel looked out the window and realized it was raining. Someone had placed a coconut-shell monkey with steel-rimmed glasses on the windowsill. Although the building was still new, she could see that the floor tiles were not as shiny as before and had a few scratches. Rachel didn't mind. She had a crush on this place, this area; she knew the restaurants that were both cheap and delicious. She felt heavy at the thought that she would soon no longer be working here.

Rachel knocked twice and entered Dalziel's office. The two men were engrossed in their conversation, seemingly unaware of her existence. Rachel couldn't help but listen to them speaking.

"I don’t understand. It’s only 30 million, why do you lick that guy's shoes like that? All you need to do is say something, can't that amount of money be borrowed from Rodriguez? Does Amanda know what is happening?”

Hearing Amanda's name, Rachel couldn't help but pay more attention. Wasn't that the name of Dalziel's fiancée? Was she also involved in their business?

“The situation is a bit tense. I can't borrow money from them.”

Seeing Rachel approaching, the two stopped. Kyle raised his head to look at her, smiling widely: "Thank you, Rachel."

“You are welcome. Is there anything else I can do for you two?”

“It's ok, Rachel, we are good now.”

Rachel closed the door and walked out.

A few days later, Rachel could feel the atmosphere at the company, especially among the board of directors, becoming tense. Dalziel and she still hadn't had a chance to talk privately. On Thursday, Rachel and Sabrina met with the bankers about their third round of funding. The bankers suddenly demanded a lot of complicated documents and papers. Returning from the meeting, Sabrina angrily threw the documents on the table: "They obviously don't want to process this loan."

Although she had been in the company for a while, Rachel had never directly worked with a bank before, so she didn't really understand the procedure of loans.

Sabrina explained: “It is not supposed to be as complicated as this. We have never encountered problems with banks when asking for loans. And we always repay on time. There is no reason why they suddenly should become so difficult…someone must have a hand in it.”

"What do you mean?"

“There are many other real estate companies that want to acquire the land in Pearl Bay. I'm not too sure but maybe one of them pressured the bank to find a way to get us in trouble.”

Rachel nodded vaguely, and then the two of them began rummaging through the financial records to extract the documents the bank required.

That night, Rachel and Sabrina stayed at work until late at night. It was already past one o'clock in the morning when the document was almost done. Sabrina raised her head to look at Rachel: "Let's go home, we will finish the rest tomorrow, I'm about to faint."

Rachel nodded in agreement. When she passed Dalziel’s room, she noticed that the lights were still on. Rachel was about to knock on the door and ask if she could do anything for him, but then stopped.

It was three o'clock in the morning when she finally collapsed onto her bed. Although her body was exhausted, Rachel's mind was strangely alert. She tossed and turned for a few hours and then fell asleep when it was almost morning. Perhaps because she was so tired, she didn't hear the alarm. It was only when Lisa knocked on the door that Rachel jumped up, hurrying back to the office. The tension lingered in the office for four days straight. Rachel, Sabrina and the company's accountant had to work non-stop overtime for extremely long hours.

However, one Friday, when Rachel showed up to the office, she realized that something was surprisingly different. Contrary to yesterday's chaos, the atmosphere in the office was unusually relaxed. Rachel’s first impression of this was from the new vase of flowers on the assistant's desk. Sabrina looked just as tired as Rachel, but there was a sign of unspoken relief on her face.

“Hi Sabrina, what’s up?”

“You’re late, naughty girl!”

“Sorry, I was so tired. I didn’t hear my alarm this morning.”

“It's fine! Don't worry, I know you are. Me too. I guess you haven’t heard the news yet.?”

“What news?” Rachel was curious.

“It's done.” Sabrina shrugged.

“What's done?”

“The loan. The bank called this morning to confirm our loan application.”

“But we haven't submitted all the documents they asked for. Right?”

Sabrina laughed: “I told you, it wasn't the paper. Someone tried to f**k us over. But now it's done. Solved.”

“Such great news! I couldn't sleep last night worrying that our company would go bankrupt, and we were all going to be unemployed.”

Sabrina burst out laughing: “You don't have to worry about it, Rachel. Seriously, don't you know who is behind our company?”

“I actually don’t know much about our business.” Rachel answered honestly.

Sabrina looked around to make sure no one would overhear their gossip. Seeing that the hallway was completely empty, she lowered her voice, "Have you heard about the boss's fiancée?"

“Yeah, she’s an American, right?”

“Yeah. But her family is extremely affluent. This company is just like their ‘fun little project’. So we don't have to worry about losing our jobs.”

Rachel should have been happy to know that her company had a solid backing. But she didn't understand why her heart shattered every time she heard someone mention Dalziel's fiancee.

That afternoon, Rachel went to the bank to handle the final procedures for the loan. This time, things went much smoother. The banker enthusiastically led Rachel to meet the branch manager and the two sides exchanged basic information and documents for only about two hours. Stepping out of the bank, she felt relieved. The subway station was quite far from the bank, but Rachel didn't mind walking. Strolling along the sidewalk, she took her time watching the hustle and bustle of the city. For the past few days, Rachel had been so busy with the loan that she had completely forgotten about resigning. Now that the loan was settled, she thought of the resignation letter that had been quietly lying in her bag.

Her mood sank. She had to admit that she didn't want to quit her job at L&R. The high salary was one obvious reason but she also was afraid of moving to a new place or starting to get used to everything again. Rachel was twenty-six, almost twenty-seven years old, not too old yet, but not so young either, so she couldn't keep wasting time on job-hopping. As Rachel walked, absorbed in thought, she didn't notice a car slowly moving beside her. It wasn't until the driver impatiently flashed his lights twice that she woke up and turned to look at a white Maybach. The two-way glass window slowly lowered, revealing the person inside as none other than Dalziel. Rachel stopped. The car stopped too.

"Dalziel, what are you doing here?" Rachel asked.

Instead of answering her, he asked her if she was going back to the office.

"Yes, I am."

"Get in the car. I’ll give you a lift.”

"No need, the train station is quite near. I can take the train back to our building."

"Get in the car." Daziel's voice was determined, almost non-negotiable. Rachel bit her lip in thought, then decided to open the door and get in. Dalziel was not with the driver, he was behind the wheel himself. Waiting for Rachel to settle down, he pressed the window button and the car continued to roll. The car looked simple from the outside, but the interior was extremely luxurious. Despite this, the smell of leather always made her feel a little nauseous. She wasn’t sure what it was; perhaps, it was associated with another time in her life or maybe it was an allergic reaction. As soon as the window was all the way up, all outside sounds disappeared; as if they had left for another land. Rachel thought to herself, it must be why this car is so expensive, its soundproofing system is really good.

Rachel's thoughts were all mixed up inside her head. She thought of the resignation letter she wrote a week ago, and took a deep breath. She wanted to talk about it, but then the words just drifted away. Her mind was blank. She was thinking about bringing up the matter, when Dalziel spoke up.

"How are you?"

“I'm fine. Not too bad.” Rachel responded instinctively.

Daziel pondered her words as if they weren’t the ones he wanted to hear. Hesitating for a moment, he continued.

"You've been working at the company for a while. How's everything going?"

“Everything is fine. I appreciate the job so much.”

Then both of them fell silent in confusion. Rachel took a deep breath and said, “I'm resigning.”

Dalziel's hand on the steering wheel was so tight that his knuckles looked white.

“Why? You just said that you appreciate the job.”

“Yes, I do. But…” Rachel did not know how to continue, “But I feel like I can’t keep a professional attitude since… since…”

“Since what?” Dalziel laughed sarcastically, “Since we used to be with each other? But you were fine for the last few months.”

“It was different.”

“What's different?”

Rachel bit her lip silently, she couldn't admit that it was because she thought that he wasn't Flynn. She didn't know if he would be offended if she admitted the truth. Eventually, Rachel could only say, "I just can't be here any longer."

“Listen,” Eyes still fixed on the road ahead, Daziel said calmly, “We were both young and silly. What happened in the past can stay in the past. You are a good member of the team now, don't quit for a silly reason. I can see that you need the job. And I admit that I want to help you. Just as an old friend. Your uncle helped me too when I needed it.”

Now, when he mentioned Uncle Hardy, Rachel really believed that he was the same guy she once loved passionately. She didn’t make all of this up. The feeling in her heart became complicated. She felt embarrassed letting him know that her life wasn't easy, but she also felt comforted by the fact that he was acting so mature. Not like her.

Rachel carefully considered the possibility of finding a similar job with a similar salary. Honestly, she was not too optimistic. Six years of rolling around in the bustling metropolis had taught her about reality. And if Uncle Hardy needed another surgery, she couldn’t be unemployed. Perhaps she could find a way to be the mistress of a rich middle-aged man, but even so she wasn't sure if she was smart enough to win their game or that she'd end up losing and becoming a puppet which rocked back and forth between rich men. She had met many beautiful and intelligent women, who hoped to change their lives by jumping into relationships with rich men, only to end up disappointed and losing themselves. While she was lost in thought, Rachel heard Dalziel continue: "I don't want anything from you, I just genuinely want to help you. Besides, I am engaged, Rachel. And you are married. The past is just the past. You don't have to quit.”

Before Rachel could answer, the car stopped in front of the company gate. His words made her feel both relieved and disappointed.

“Here we are. You go back first, I have somewhere to go. But, think about it, Rachel.”

Rachel looked up at Dalziel, saying, "Thanks."