“I’d say yes if anyone ever asked me.” Hannah Price said it so softly that even she wished she could pull the words back before they reached the other side of the folding table.

The morning sun broke over Pittsburgh in streaks of cold gold and grey.

Hannah sat across from Richard Mercer in a pristine, white-marbled coffee shop downtown, three blocks from Mercer Tower.

Richard looked nothing like Grant. Where Grant was broad, grounded, and plainly dressed, Richard was thin, impeccably tailored in a double-breasted suit, with slicked-back hair and teeth that looked too white to be natural. He moved with the nervous, aggressive energy of a man who knew he was operating on borrowed time.

"Let's not waste time, Miss Price," Richard said, sliding a thick cream-colored envelope across the small glass table. "I know Grant spent the entire night at your little soup kitchen."

Hannah didn't touch the envelope. "It's a community center, Mr. Mercer. And we were preparing an economic impact report for the board."

Richard chuckled—a dry, metallic sound. "Grant is an engineer at heart. He gets sentimental about old brick and tragic stories. It’s his fatal flaw. But Mercer Vale is a business, not a charity."

"What is this?" Hannah gestured toward the envelope.

"That," Richard said, leaning forward, "is a legal agreement offering Briar House a private lease on a fully renovated facility in East Liberty. Five years rent-free, funded entirely by a subsidiary I control. In exchange, you pull your organization out of Juniper Street by the end of the month and publicly endorse our redevelopment plan at the city council hearing on Thursday afternoon."

Hannah stared at him. "And what happens to Grant's plan? The integrated design?"

"Grant's plan is a fantasy," Richard spat out softly. "It balloons our construction schedule by six months and cuts our equity partners' returns. I have already informed two major board members that Grant is compromising his fiduciary duty due to an inappropriate personal relationship with you."

Hannah felt a spike of icy fury in her chest. "There is nothing inappropriate about our relationship."

"Public perception doesn't care about the truth, Miss Price," Richard sneered. "If Grant pushes his revised plan on Friday, I will present photos of him entering your building yesterday afternoon and leaving at six this morning. I will frame it as a clear conflict of interest. The board will suspend him, I will take over as interim CEO, and your building will be demolished anyway—without the zero-rent deal I'm offering you right now."

Hannah sat frozen. The sheer malice of the maneuver was breathtaking. Richard wasn't just trying to destroy Briar House; he was using Hannah to destroy Grant's reputation and steal control of the company Grant had built.

"You have until four o'clock today to sign that agreement," Richard said, standing up and buttoning his jacket. "If you refuse, I ruin Grant on Friday morning, and I guarantee Briar House won't get a single dime when the bulldozers roll in."

He walked out of the coffee shop, leaving Hannah alone with the heavy cream envelope.

She sat there for ten minutes, watching the steam rise from her untouched tea. Her mind raced through the options.

If she took Richard's deal, Briar House survived in a new location. Sophie would be safe, the programs would continue, and the immediate crisis would end. But Grant would be betrayed. His dream of an integrated community project would die, and he would know that the woman he had opened his heart to had traded him away for a lease.

If she refused, Grant would face a vicious ambush at the board meeting, and Briar House could be left with nothing.

She picked up her phone and dialed Grant's private line.

He answered on the first ring. "Hannah? Did you get the finalized census numbers from the food pantry?"