His hands trembled as he sat back down.
“I know what I did to you,” he said quietly. “I was cruel. I thought it was funny. But please… don’t punish her for that.”
“Your daughter?” I asked.
“Yes, Lily is eight and has a congenital heart defect. Surgery is scheduled in two weeks. I don’t have insurance or anything to cover it. I just… I can’t lose my daughter.”
Mark looked so broken at that moment.
“I know what I did to you.”
The rejection stamp sat on the corner of my desk. So did the approval stamp.
I let the silence stretch.
Mark swallowed. “I know my credit isn’t great. I had some setbacks during the pandemic. Construction contracts fell through, and I haven’t bounced back since.”
I leaned forward and looked at him before signing him up for the loan and stamping it “approved.”
“I’m approving the full amount. Interest-free.”
His head snapped up.
“I know my credit isn’t great.”
“But,” I continued, sliding a printed contract across the desk, “there is one condition.”
Hope flickered across his face, mixed with dread. “What condition?”
“Look at the bottom of the page.”
Beneath the formal terms, I’d handwritten an addendum after reading the loan request. All that was left was for the legal team to format it into a binding clause.
“You sign that, or you don’t get a dime,” I explained.
See more on the next page
