The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 337

Locked, of course. But I had a spare key made years ago, when my parents decided that locking me out of the house was a fitting punishment at times. I slipped it out of my pocket and unlocked the door, quietly slipping in before shutting it behind me.

My father’s study was spacious and smelled of wood and leather. I looked around, ensuring I was alone, then walked over to the desk and began opening drawers.

Nothing. No mention of a dowry or anything of the like; just paperwork, half-read books, old photographs and a tin of cigars that my father insisted on saving for special occasions, which was to say, reserved especially for his wealthiest business partners.

I shut the last drawer, then turned slowly, looking around. My father kept most of his important paperwork in the metal filing cabinet under the window; if anything as important as information regarding money was in this room, it would likely be there.

I walked over, trying the top drawer. Locked. But I knew his leftmost desk drawer had a false bottom in it, so I pulled it out, locating the key easily.

Unlocking the filing cabinet, I began rifling through the drawers. Mostly just old paperwork, nothing of note.

But then I found it.

A folder labeled “Debts”.

I frowned and pulled it out, flipping through. Page after page of debts that went from the hundreds, to the thousands, then to the tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands. Skyrocketing interest rates mentioned in letters from someone who only went by the name “J”.

“What the…?” I flipped to the next page, then the next. It seemed my parents had borrowed a lot of money from this “J” person, never paying it back, only taking out more and more until they owed…

Millions.

That was the final number. Not six figures, but seven, and on the higher end of that.

I stared at the papers for a long time.

Millions. My parents owed millions to this “J” person, and the final letter from him was nothing short of subtly threatening in the kind of way a loan shark might shake down a bad client without getting in trouble.

They needed her dowry to pay off their debts.

Betrayal hit me like a bullet to the throat. I was their son, and they knew how cruel Bianca was, and they were using me as a puppet to pay off some loan shark. Like I wasn’t a person, but rather a piggy bank ready to be shattered.

And to make matters worse, they had threatened to harm Liora, all because of this.

I was still standing there, processing everything, when the door opened behind me.

Before I could turn, a shadow fell across me, tall and broad. My father’s cologne filled the space, and I heard the door lock.

“Callum,” he said slowly. “What are you doing with that?”