Chapter 49: A complicated Saturday

Saturday came faster than Emily wanted.

She stood in front of her mirror, staring at herself for a few seconds before reaching for her phone.

A message from Adrian was still sitting there.

Adrian:I’ll pick you up around two.

Emily stared at it.

She hadn’t forgotten.

She just wished she could.

Her mother was still in the hospital. The money Adrian had given her had covered the immediate expenses, and for the first time in days, Emily could breathe without constantly checking her banking app.

But there was a price.

Time.

That was what Adrian had asked for.

Not dating.

Not leaving Damian.

Just time.

She hated how reasonable he’d made it sound.

Her phone buzzed again.

Damian:Morning love. You awake?

Emily’s expression softened immediately.

She typed.

Emily:Yeah babe. Just got up.

A few seconds later, his reply came.

Damian:Same. I think I’m finally getting somewhere with this acquisition thing.

Emily smiled.

Emily:You’re still working on that?

Damian:Unfortunately.

Emily:Poor billionaire.

She almost laughed.

Damian:I’m not a billionaire yet.

Emily shook her head.

Emily:Yet?

Damian:Exactly.

She smiled at the screen.

That was Damian.

Even when things were going well, he was already looking ahead.

Emily:Good luck love.

Damian:Thanks babe. What are you doing today?

Her smile faded.

She stared at the question for a moment.

Her fingers hovered above the keyboard.

I’m going out with Adrian.

She deleted it.

Typed again.

I’m handling some family stuff.

Deleted that too.

Finally—

Emily:Just got a few things to handle today.

The response came quickly.

Damian:Okay. Take care of yourself.

Emily stared at those words longer than she should have.

Then she locked her phone.

"I’m sorry."

She whispered it to an empty room.

Across town, Damian sat at his dining table with a laptop open in front of him.

A folder occupied most of the screen.

ACQUISITION OPPORTUNITY

He clicked through the documents again.

Revenue.

Customer retention.

Monthly operating expenses.

Existing contracts.

Employee salaries.

Outstanding debt.

Nothing immediately screamed disaster.

That was actually what made him more interested.

If the company had been obviously failing, there would be no mystery.

But it wasn’t.

The company had paying customers.

It had software people were actually using.

It had recurring revenue.

And yet the asking price was low.

Too low.

Damian leaned back.

"What’s the catch?"

He scrolled further.

The company had been operating for several years but had struggled to expand beyond its original customer base.

Growth had stalled.

The founder had apparently invested heavily into development but hadn’t managed to build a strong sales operation.

Damian frowned.

"So basically...good product, bad business."

That sounded fixable.

Then he reached the debt section.

He stopped.

There was more than he’d expected.

Not enough to immediately kill the deal, but enough to make him uncomfortable.

Damian grabbed his notebook.

He wrote:

Debt — investigate.

Then underneath it:

Why sell now?

That question bothered him more.

People didn’t normally sell a functioning company cheaply for no reason.

There had to be something.

He continued reading.

One line caught his attention.

Primary software infrastructure requires modernization.

Damian slowly leaned back.

"Okay."

That could be expensive.

He wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.

He didn’t know enough about software infrastructure to estimate the cost himself.

And that was exactly why he needed people who did.

The System appeared.

A familiar golden screen formed above the table.

[ACQUISITION ANALYSIS IN PROGRESS.]

Damian looked at it.

"Yeah, yeah. I know."

Another line appeared.

[PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT: OPPORTUNITY DETECTED.]

Damian raised an eyebrow.

"That’s not exactly useful."

The System didn’t respond.

He sighed.

"Of course."

The screen disappeared.

Damian looked back at the documents.

For once, he wasn’t interested in buying something just because he could.

Five million dollars was a lot of money.

But it wasn’t infinite.

One bad acquisition could burn through millions faster than he could earn them.

He wrote another line.

Don’t buy because it’s cheap.

Then underlined it.

At almost exactly two o’clock, a dark car pulled up outside Emily’s house.

Emily saw it through the window.

She closed her eyes briefly.

Then grabbed her bag.

When she stepped outside, Adrian was already standing beside the car.

He looked at her.

"You ready?"

Emily nodded.

"Yeah."

Adrian opened the passenger door.

She hesitated for half a second before getting in.

As the car pulled away, Adrian glanced at her.

"You seem tense."

"I’m fine."

"You always say that when you’re not."

Emily looked out the window.

"Can we just keep today normal?"

Adrian was quiet for a moment.

"Sure."

That answer surprised her.

She looked at him.

He kept his eyes on the road.

"No pressure," he added. "We’re just going to an event."

Emily nodded.

"Okay."

For several minutes, neither of them spoke.

Then Adrian smiled slightly.

"You know, this is probably the first time we’ve actually hung out without you trying to leave after ten minutes."

Emily rolled her eyes.

"Don’t ruin it."

He laughed.

"Fair."

And for a moment, it really was normal.

Two old friends in a car.

No arguments.

No relationship talk.

No mention of Damian.

That was what made Emily uncomfortable.

Because it was easier than she expected.

Ethan, meanwhile, was having a terrible day.

Not because anything was happening to him.

Because he knew something was happening to everyone else.

He sat in the university cafeteria with his phone in his hand.

A message from Damian sat at the top of his chat.

Damian:You coming for the match later?

Ethan stared at it.

Then typed.

Ethan:Yeah.

Simple.

Normal.

He put his phone down.

A few seconds later, he picked it back up.

He almost typed:

Bro, we need to talk.

He deleted it.

There was no way he could betray Emily’s trust.

But keeping secrets from Damian felt terrible too.

"Fish brain," Ethan muttered.

He leaned back.

"This is your fault somehow."

His phone buzzed again.

Damian:Why are you calling me fish brain now?

Ethan froze.

He hadn’t realized he’d typed it.

He looked down.

He had.

"Damn."

He quickly replied.

Ethan:Nothing. Typo.

The response came almost immediately.

Damian:You’re weird.

Ethan smiled despite himself.

Ethan:Says you.

He locked his phone.

At least Damian hadn’t noticed anything.

Yet.

The event itself was surprisingly relaxed.

Emily expected Adrian to spend the entire afternoon trying to impress her.

Instead, he introduced her to a few people, talked about university, and occasionally made jokes.

At one point, they ended up standing near a balcony overlooking the venue.

Adrian handed her a drink.

"Here."

"Thanks."

Emily took it.

She looked around.

"You really like these things?"

"Sometimes."

"You look like you belong here."

Adrian shrugged.

"I grew up around it."

Emily nodded.

She understood what he meant.

Their worlds had always been slightly different.

Money had never been something Adrian needed to think about.

For Emily, it was something that could determine whether her mother received treatment.

She looked down.

Adrian noticed.

"You okay?"

"Yeah."

He didn’t push.

That almost made her feel worse.

After a moment, he said quietly, "Your mom?"

Emily looked at him.

"She got the treatment."

Adrian nodded.

"Good."

"Thank you."

"You don’t have to keep thanking me."

"I know."

"But you keep doing it."

Emily smiled faintly.

"Because I’m grateful."

Adrian looked away.

"Then we’re even."

Emily didn’t answer.

They weren’t even.

Not really.

She owed him money.

And now she owed him time.

That was the part she hadn’t figured out how to separate.

Later that evening, Damian closed his laptop.

He’d spent nearly four hours going through the acquisition documents.

He had more questions than answers.

Which, strangely enough, felt like progress.

He opened his phone.

There was a message from Emily.

Emily:Hope your day went well love.

Damian smiled.

Damian:It did. Found some interesting stuff about the company.

Emily:Good interesting or bad interesting?

Damian:Somewhere in the middle.

Emily:So basically you don’t know 😂

Damian laughed.

Damian:Exactly.

A few seconds passed.

Then:

Emily:I’m glad you’re enjoying it though.

Damian looked at the message.

There was something different about the way she was texting.

Not enough to call it strange.

Just enough to notice.

He typed:

Damian:You okay?

Emily saw the message.

Her chest tightened.

She waited.

Then replied.

Emily:Yeah babe. Just tired.

Damian stared at the screen.

He could tell something was off.

But he’d learned something recently.

Not every problem needed him to solve it.

Sometimes people needed space.

Damian:Get some rest then. Goodnight love.

Emily swallowed.

Emily:Goodnight babe ❤️

She put the phone down.

Adrian’s earlier message was still below it.

Adrian:Same time next week?

Emily stared at it.

Her finger hovered over the keyboard.

She didn’t answer.

Not yet.

Damian closed his phone and looked at the acquisition documents one more time.

There was something here.

He just needed to figure out what.

He opened his notebook and added one final line beneath the others.

Meet the owner.

That was the next step.

Numbers could tell him what the company was worth.

Documents could tell him what it owed.

But neither could tell him why the owner was willing to sell.

Damian closed the notebook.

"Let’s find out."

Across the city, Emily lay awake with her phone beside her.

And for the first time, she wondered how long she could keep two completely separate parts of her life from colliding.

She didn’t have an answer.

Not yet.