Page 98 of Kisses and Paperclips

“Don’t lie to me now. You built this.”

She looked away.

And in that moment, I saw her.

Not the boss.

Not the strategist.

Not even the liar.

Just the woman trying to survive a storm she couldn’t outrun.

“You’re not just cleaning for them,” I said. “You’re tied to them. Owned by them.”

Her eyes flicked up to mine. There was something in them now. Panic. Or maybe regret.

I stood.

“Tell me everything. Right now.”

The words came out flat. Cold.

“Or I take this to the board, and you lose more than your job. You lose your protection.”

She didn’t flinch. But her silence cracked under the weight of everything we weren’t saying.

And that’s when it hit me.

She was scared. The worst part was that I still wanted to protect her.

Even now.

Even after all of it.

“I owe them money,” she said, her voice low. “I’m in over my head with debt. They told me I could repay it by using the company to clean their money.”

I didn’t move. My voice stayed steady, though my thoughts spun like tires on wet pavement.

“Does my mother know?”

Serena shook her head. “No.”

She looked down at her hands, fingers twisting.

“She thinks I went to them for an investment—had no idea who they were. What they’re tied to.”

Her breath caught, then released like she’d finally peeled off a mask.

“But I knew,” she said. Like it hurt to admit out loud. “I thought I could fix two things at once,” she continued. “Help a friend… and survive.”

I stared at her, searching for the person I thought I knew.

“How are you helping her?” I asked.

“I took out a loan,” she said. “A second one, on top of what I already owed. To jumpstart us. Get us off the ground.” She exhaled shakily, and her voice cracked just slightly. “I was trying to build something that could free us both.”

Tears welled in her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall.

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