“What does this mean? I’m negotiating with them.”
“They no longer need negotiation,” Zelica interrupted. “Because everyone has been paid in full.”
He looked at her, confused.
“Paid by whom?”
Zelica pointed to herself.
“By me.”
Seek pushed a second binder of documents toward him.
“Through three investment companies affiliated with Okafor Legacy Holdings LLC, we have acquired or bought all those outstanding invoices. Copies of the debt assignment deeds are in front of you.”
Quacy opened the first sheet. His heart seemed to stop.
“In other words, Mr. Quacy,” Zelica leaned in, looking directly into the eyes of the man who had destroyed her, “your company no longer owes anything to those small merchants.”
She paused, letting the silence fill the room.
“Your company now owes me.”
“Me?”
He couldn’t breathe.
“I can pay. I can pay in installments.”
“Oh, of course,” Zelica said. “But I’m not interested in doing business with you, and I’m not interested in getting back with you. I want my money back.”
She slapped the documents in front of him.
“According to the assignment clause, this debt is due now. You have twenty-four hours to liquidate those five hundred thousand dollars in cash.”
“Twenty-four hours? That’s impossible. No one has that much cash!” he shouted, finally panicking.
“I do,” Zelica replied coldly.
“You—you set a trap for me.”
“A trap?” She stood up. “I am only claiming what is my right, just like you kept all my rights before. If in twenty-four hours you cannot pay…”
She put a third binder of documents on the stack.
“Our legal team will immediately register the lien on that penthouse in the Sovereign, on your office, and on all your heavy machinery. Good morning, Mr. Quacy.”
Twenty-four hours.
He never knew how short twenty-four hours were.
After leaving Zelica’s mansion, he didn’t go back to the apartment. He panicked. He spent the first hour driving aimlessly, cursing Zelica, Seek, and the whole world.
The second hour, he started calling.
He called his bank manager.
“I need a loan of $500,000. The collateral is my project in South Georgia.”
The bank manager laughed on the other end of the phone.
“Quacy, don’t joke. You don’t have that project secured yet. Besides, your credit limit is already tapped out to finance… well, you know.”
He hung up abruptly.
From the third to the tenth hour, he spent calling all his business contacts. Every friend he had invited for expensive wine, every small official he had tipped.
