Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 60

Chapter 60 One Chance

Na ran the morning meeting, and at nine she sat through the interviews and turned down every new graduate who came in.

The vendors started at ten.

The first was Wade Holcomb, who made the jerky Wolf Bait was supposed to sell on his stream.

Nora went straight at him. “If you want that jerky in his livestream links, I have two conditions. First, get your paperwork in order. I want to see a current business license, a manufacturing permit, and a health inspection. Second, you pay a placement fee.”

The contract Mandy had signed for WolfBait covered a product with no license, no permit, and no factory anyone could trace, and it carried no placement fee at all. All he got was a cut of the profit, and the cut was an insult. Eighty percent to the vendor, twenty to him.

On $100 of profit, WolfBait cleared $20. It was daylight robbery.

Wade had fought hard for a deal that cheap, and he had no intention of handing over a placement fee now.

“The contract is signed. I’m not accepting your conditions, and our licensing is complete.”

Nora smiled. “I’m new here, so I’ll give you one chance, Mr. Holcomb. If you won’t meet the conditions, we terminate.”

“Miss Sinclair…”

She cut him off, still smiling. “One chance, Mr. Holcomb. That was it.”

Wade took in how young she was and wasn’t the least bit worried. “Miss Sinclair, the contract says termination costs you $1,000,000.”

He’d put down $100,000 up front. If she walked away, that $1,000,000 penalty would earn him more than the jerky ever would.

He ran a very small operation, after all.

The smile came off her. “If you won’t terminate, Mr. Holcomb, then forget it.”

She picked up her phone and dialed. “Hello, I’d like to file a complaint about Holcomb Foods. Their licensing is out of date and their facility hasn’t passed fire inspection…”

Every bit of color left his face. A fire inspection always turned something up.

Wade glared at her. “Miss Sinclair, my licensing is complete. A complaint like that goes nowhere.”

Nora didn’t blink. “Your license expired a year ago, and the address you registered the plant at isn’t the address you’re producing at.

“You broke the contract first, Mr. Holcomb. Don’t forget you owe me $1,000,000.”

His face came apart and he changed his tune in a hurry. “Miss Sinclair, wait. I’ll have every piece of paper

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Chapter 60 One Chance

current by the end of the week. The placement fee…”

ལོར་ཏན་

put a hand up. “Your chance is gone, Mr. Holcomb.

“Chloc, show him out.”

Finished

Whatever he said after that, she was finished with him, and in the end his own assistant had to come and hurry him out of the building.

Before she saw the other two vendors, Nora put every vendor the company had into one group chat.

Then she pulled the security footage of the meeting and dropped her whole conversation with Wade into

the chat.

Nobody typed anything for a full minute.

Making an example out of one of them like that was a hell of an opening move.

Some of them took the point. They also knew the contracts they’d signed were bargains they’d only gotten because the Sinclair sisters had been at each other’s throats.

The new owner clearly moved fast and clearly had teeth, so the ones with sense volunteered to renegotiate.

The ones without sense, who believed their own licenses and fire certificates were spotless, dug in and took her on.

Licensing and fire code weren’t the only levers Nora had.

One owner, for instance, had a girlfriend his wife knew nothing about. Another had video from his plant floor that no inspector should ever see..

The short version was that anyone who wanted to fight her lost. Nora had ways of bringing people around, and they came down to two options, terminate or sign again.

All of that worked on small factories and small companies. The big partners kept legal teams on retainer, and they weren’t going to fold that easily.

By the time she came up for air, it was half past five.

She checked her phone. Mandy and Victor had both messaged asking what time she’d be home for dinner, and each of them insisted she bring Julian.

Nora said seven and said nothing at all about Julian.

His contact sat there quiet, with no unread messages on it.

She opened the thread. The last message in it was from the day before, and the whole exchange said nothing at all.

She made a face, opened his contact card, and changed the name from Mr. Weston to Terminal Husband.

Other women married a temp husband. Hers came with a terminal diagnosis.

Nora posted in the company chat that everyone could go home, and then she drove to the hospital to see

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Chapter 60 One Chance

Wren.

en lay in the bed with nothing left in her. Even so, after surgery she had to get up and move so she wouldn’t develop adhesions.

Nora took her arm and walked her out into the corridor for some air.

“How do you feel today? Any better?”

Wren gave her a weak smile. “Much better. It wasn’t major surgery. You don’t have to worry.”

Nora took her pulse, and she really was recovering well.

“Damon hasn’t been in to look after you?”

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