Chapter 19
ALYSSA
Alyssa could hardly believe that this man was sitting here.
All day, she’d been desperately trying to get hold of someone from the Morden family without success, and now someone with the same surname had come to her.
And she had no idea how or why, but it couldn’t be a coincidence.
As soon as she’d introduced herself, she cut straight to finding out if this was the person she’d been looking for.
‘The person who owned this building passed away recently – a man called Martyn Morden. Are you related to him?’
As soon as she saw his chest deflate and his slow, resigned nod, she knew the answer. ‘He was my father.’
Business could wait a second because she could see the flinch of sadness on this guy’s face and reminded herself that she might be about to lose her home and her business, but he’d lost his dad. And that was far more important.
‘I’m really sorry for your loss. I read a bit about him, and it seems like he was a good man who cared about people.
Losing him must have been a terrible thing.
’ She hoped that was the right thing to say.
She and Ginny had never known their dad – he’d buggered off when they were about three and four – so she didn’t have the best insight into the relationships between fathers and their children.
‘Thank you.’
That was all he said. Not the most talkative of guys, but then, maybe it was just too painful a subject.
‘The thing is…’ she began, trying to find the right words.
‘Well, I’m sorry to talk about business at a time like this, but Mr Morden owned this building.
And I don’t know if you’re aware, but his lawyer has sent me a letter, telling me that my lease has been terminated and I have sixty days to leave. ’
There was something in his lack of reaction that gave her a sense that this wasn’t news to him, and that threw her off kilter. Ginny must have spotted it too, because she joined the conversation.
‘Did you already know this? Is that why you came here? To make sure we knew we were getting tossed out?’ There was an escalation in Ginny’s tone, almost an accusation, and Alyssa watched as his posture changed and he shook his head.
‘No!’ he said urgently, before de-escalating and lowering the heat.
‘I don’t have anything to do with my family’s business.
In fact, the first I knew about my dad owning this building was this morning when his will was read.
I didn’t even know that it was still a café, and the only reason I came here today was because my late mum used to bring us here when we were kids, and I had an urge to see it again.
If you hadn’t sat down and spoken to me, I’d have drunk my coffee and left. ’
Alyssa watched as Ginny considered that, then appeared to accept it. ‘He’s probably right. I only spoke to him because he’s good-looking, and you’re having a terrible day, so I was trying to create a romcom moment between you to take your mind off it. My bad. ’
Alyssa wanted to put her head on the table until the embarrassment subsided, but the opportunity to speak to him was too important to avoid, especially now that she knew he didn’t come with…
What was it they called it on all those crime shows on the telly?
Malicious intent. Yes, that was it. She chided herself.
If he was telling the truth, then this poor man had come to have a moment of reflection in a place that reminded him of his late mother, and she was now drawing her vocabulary from Netflix shows about serial killers.
‘But you know now.’ Alyssa could hear the pleading in her own voice.
‘I’ve spent four years making this café incredible and you can see how beautiful it is.
We love it here and it’s my whole life. But, more importantly than that, my customers love it too.
It’s one of the meeting places in the community, somewhere that everyone is welcome… ’
Ginny leaned forward. ‘Except that obnoxious guy – the taxi driver that used to be an MP and then got jailed for drink driving. Lives just up the road. He’s not welcome.’
Not for the first time in this life, this year, or even this week, Alyssa noted that Ginny’s mind worked in mysterious ways, but she just rolled right over the interruption and kept on going.
‘Where everyone except him is welcome. Tonight, the whole village is coming here for a party. In future, where will they gather if you close us down? Losing this place would be a tragedy for the villagers, so I’m begging you to help me. Who do I have to speak to? What can I do to change this?’
Surely he’d see how important this was? This was about more than buying and selling buildings.
More than just bricks and mortar and transactions on a balance sheet.
This café meant so much more than that. For a long second, she felt confident, hopeful.
But then she saw him shake his head and hesitate to speak.
That told her that he didn’t have the words she wanted to hear .
‘I wish I could help you, I really do. But it’s complicated.’
‘So explain it to me. Tell me how it works. The letter said it was the “estate” that was ordering the sale. Is that not you?’
‘Not just me. There are other people involved – other family members. My dad instructed that this building be sold, and even if I wanted to cancel the sale, or find a way to delay it, there’s no way that they’d agree to that.’
She noticed that he wasn’t revealing who the other people involved were, but she assumed it was his siblings.
No, just one sibling. She remembered the Google search this morning and joined the dots.
It said his father had a wife and two sons.
If his mother had passed away, that must mean his dad had remarried.
So the other person or people in this must include his stepmother or his brother, or both.
Down but not out, Alyssa decided. She flicked back through her memory for the arguments she’d prepared to share with the lawyer this morning.
‘Surely, though, this building is an appreciating asset? Doesn’t it make sense to keep it and let the investment grow? Especially when I’m paying a good rent, so you’re gaining income from it every month?’
He leaned towards her, his elbows and forearms on the table, hands clasped in front of him. ‘Yes. All of that. And it would be a solid case if it wasn’t for the fact that I know one of the other parties wants to release the capital quickly and the only way to do that is to sell.’
‘Can I speak to them? Would you set that up? I could convince them to wait, offer alternatives…’ She knew she was sounding desperate now, but that’s because she absolutely was.
When she’d been working in the kitchen a few minutes ago, she’d run through the other options, the first one being the most obvious – maybe she could buy the building?
That one had been immediately di smissed – there was no way she’d get a mortgage for anything even close to what would be needed because she had no savings and for the last four years, she’d only taken a small salary and had ploughed every other penny of profit back into the business.
Her second thought had been that perhaps she could spread the word in the village and see if there was any way to raise the funds in the community to buy the building.
However, there were two immediate problems with that – the first was that she didn’t know how much the building was worth and the second was that sixty days wasn’t enough time to organise it.
He had to help her. He had to. There was no other way. She tried to manifest it into existence, will him to say yes.
‘No. I’m sorry, Alice…’
‘It’s Alyssa,’ she corrected him, with a deathly calm that she definitely didn’t feel.
‘I’m sorry… Alyssa .’ And he said it with such regret that she almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
‘But I would be getting your hopes up and then wasting your time, because he’d never do it. He wants it sold now. End of story. As I said, even if I wanted to help you by holding on to the building, he would refuse. Nothing will change his mind, I promise you.’
He. So he must be talking about his brother then.
‘And you won’t even try to help me by asking him?’
They were going round in circles, but she couldn’t stop herself, even though the expression on his face told her everything she didn’t want to know. It was no surprise when he eventually said no.
She sat back in her chair, palms on the table, deflated. Devastated. She felt a hand go onto her lap and squeeze her leg, and she knew it was Ginny, who’d come to the same conclusion as her .
This was hopeless. He wouldn’t even try. That told them so much about the kind of man this was.
‘Mr Morden…’ She refused to call him by his first name. They weren’t friends. ‘I think you should leave.’
She watched him sigh, then reach into his pocket and take out his wallet, open it, and she guessed what he was about to do.
‘I don’t want your money. I’m not that desperate,’ she told him in a tone that left no room for argument.
He didn’t even reply. Just stood up, lifted his jacket from the chair next to him, took a step away, then stopped, turned back.
‘For what it’s worth, I truly am sorry.’
‘Really?’ she challenged him, eyes blazing. ‘Because when I’m sorry for something I’ve done wrong, I fix it. And I don’t see you trying to do that.’
‘It’s not that easy.’
‘With people like you, it never is. Enjoy your inheritance, Mr Morden. Last time I checked, this café was still mine. This building is still mine. And that door is still mine. So don’t let it hit your arse on the way out.’
He didn’t even argue. He just walked away, and he was at the door when the next words came out of her mouth, with absolutely no consultation with her brain.
‘Mr Morden, you said that your mother loved this place. I wonder what she’d think of this now.’
It was a low blow, and she hated herself for saying it. Although, it was wasted on him anyway, because he simply kept on going. The next thing she heard was the ding of the bell, then she watched through the window as he jumped into his swanky big flash-bastard car and drove off.
She sat perfectly still, struggling to stay upright, to hold herself together, to make herself breathe, when she felt Ginny’s head drop onto her shoulder .
‘I’ve no idea who you are right now, but I need to tell you that you are fricking kick-ass fabulous.’
Alyssa didn’t take the compliment from the sentence. ‘I’m the person who just lost any hope of saving her café and her home.’
She wanted to cry. To punch the table. To put a chair through the window. Actually, not that, because she’d get charged for the damages and she was about to be homeless and unemployed.
‘And I’m the person who still has two hundred sandwiches to make. Come on, Ginny. Let’s get back to work. People like him don’t deserve our time.’
As she walked back to the kitchen, she realised she was also the person who now had fifty-nine days to plan a new life. So maybe it was time to stop fighting a lost cause and get started on that.