Sheila Roberts - Better Than Chocolate

She’d known the company was having trouble, but hearing this, Muriel felt like she’d been knocked over by an avalanche. First that horrible diagnosis, followed by Waldo’s sudden death, now the business. What next?

If she’d stayed in the modest paid-for house where she and Stephen had raised the girls, she and Samantha could have gone to the bank and gotten a home equity loan and solved this problem. But instead, she’d traded up and bought a big, new house to go with her new husband and her new life. Real estate values in the region had fallen and even she knew what that meant—her house wasn’t worth what it once was. And that meant the amount of equity she had to trade on amounted to zilch.

It seemed wrong to ask your daughter, “What are we going to do?” She should’ve had an answer. But she didn’t. So she sat there and stared at Samantha, feeling like the world’s worst mother, willing her brain to become math-friendly.

“I’ve been to the bank,” Samantha said. “They won’t help us. Right now there’s only one thing I can think to do.”

She’d thought of something. Good. Whatever it was, Muriel would support her.

Samantha hesitated, chewing her lip. She obviously wasn’t happy with the solution she’d come up with.

“I’m listening,” Muriel said encouragingly even though she felt an overwhelming urge to run away.

“I hate to ask this, but did Waldo have life insurance?”

Life insurance. Just hearing the words made Muriel’s stomach churn. Waldo was not only dead, his life was reduced to a check. But it was a check they needed. She could use it to help her daughter save the company and maybe pay down this ridiculous mortgage.

Oh, how crass that sounded! Waldo, I’m sorry.

“Mom, I wouldn’t ask if I could think of anything else but I’m out of options,” Samantha was saying. “If you could just lend me enough to catch us up with the bank, I’ll make sure you get repaid as soon as possible.”

She patted her daughter’s arm. “This is our business, honey. I’ll give you the money.”

Samantha’s lower lip trembled and she took a deep breath. “Thanks,” she said with tears in her eyes.

“We’re a family. Family sticks together.” Muriel hugged her.

Samantha wrapped her arms around Muriel like a drowning person would grab a life preserver.

Independent as her daughter was, she still needed her mother, and no matter how much Muriel wanted to sit life out for a good long while, maybe forever, she wasn’t about to abandon her child to fight this battle on her own. “I won’t let us lose this business,” she promised. “Grandma Rose would turn in her grave.”

“So would Daddy.” Samantha pulled away and Muriel saw both relief and guilt on her face. “Thanks, Mom. I’m sorry we’re having to go about things this way.”

She pushed a lock of red hair behind Samantha’s ear. “I’m not. And Waldo would be happy to know he was helping.”

That remark tugged her daughter’s lips down at the corners, and even though Samantha didn’t say it, Muriel could hear her thinking, It’s the least he could do, considering the circumstances.

But she didn’t say it, and for that Muriel was grateful. She held in a thought of her own, too. Yes, Waldo made some mistakes but he wasn’t the one who took out that expansion loan in the first place. Sometimes her daughter forgot that.

“I’ll find the policy and call the insurance company this afternoon,” she promised.

Samantha nodded, still looking uncomfortable. “Thanks.” And then she was all business, ready to recommence fighting the world. “I’d better get back to the office. Call me after you talk to them.”

“I will,” Muriel assured her.

She sent Samantha on her way with a kiss, then stood at the window and watched her run down the walk to her car. For a moment she saw her daughter at eighteen, climbing into the passenger seat next to her father, driving to her summer job in the Sweet Dreams office. “Someday I’m going to run this company,” she’d announced when she was sixteen, “and we’ll be big.”

Such dreams and ambition. “She’s a natural,” Stephen had said.

Muriel sighed. She should have remembered that and left her daughter in charge instead of bringing in Waldo and complicating things. She hadn’t trusted her own judgment or her daughter’s business smarts, and now she realized that had been a mistake. But Samantha had been so young.

As if age had anything to do with business smarts. Muriel herself was living proof that wasn’t true.

Well, it was a new day. Samantha was in charge now and it seemed fitting that Waldo’s life insurance money would allow her to resuscitate Sweet Dreams and take the company to the next level.

Muriel went up to the loft they’d turned into an office and opened the filing cabinet. The files were all jumbled, with manila folders stuck in haphazardly rather than in alphabetical order. She finally found the one marked Life Insurance and pulled it out, only to discover it contained papers on the house.

Panic began to simmer inside her. She set the file on the cabinet and checked the house file, thinking maybe Waldo had mixed things up. No life insurance policy. She moved to the desk, pawing through the scattered papers piled on top. A past-due notice for Waldo’s Beemer payment made her swallow hard but didn’t distract her from her search. It had to be here somewhere.

Three hours and two more cups of coffee later, she found a letter from the insurance company. She picked it up and began to read.

Words jumped out and slapped her. Due to nonpayment…policy…canceled.

There had to be some mistake. She’d call the insurance company first thing in the morning and straighten this all out.

Oh, Lord, please let there be some mistake.

But there wasn’t. No matter how many superiors Muriel spoke to the following morning, no matter how much she pleaded, the answer was always the same: “We’re sorry, but we can’t help you.”

And now she had to call the office and say the same words to her daughter. She stared at the phone and wished she could just go back to bed.

Chapter Five

If you can’t depend on your family in your time of need, who can you depend on?

—Muriel Sterling, When Family Matters

Samantha sat at her desk, gnawing her fingernails while staring out the office window at the Wenatchee River. The sun was out today and the river was a sparkling sapphire-blue, but she could barely see it. Her view was eclipsed by the vision of the end of life as she knew it. Sweet Dreams was going to be history. The possibility of using Waldo’s life insurance money had been her last hope. What was going to happen to her employees? What was going to happen to Mom without that extra income? How could she fix this mess?

Maybe another bank would lend her money. Then she could use that to pay off Cascade Mutual. She made a couple of calls to test the water. The water was frigid. Another fingernail went bye-bye.

Her cell phone started playing “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Bailey.

She forced herself to answer even though she didn’t want to. She’d already talked to Cecily, who’d at least had the decency to let her be depressed. Bailey, the family cheerleader, would be calling to pump her up. And she didn’t want to be pumped up, damn it all, she wanted to be pissed. Pissed, pissed, pissed!

“I’m here,” she snarled.

“Well, of course. Where else would you be?” Bailey replied reasonably. “You wouldn’t be you if you weren’t in the office busy saving the company.”

“I’m not busy saving the company. I’m busy…” What was she busy doing? Oh, yeah, feeling sorry for herself and doing a darned good job of it, too.