She had made no progress at all.
Daniella sat back on her heels on the cold marble floor, the papers clenched in her hands. Something moved through her then, something beyond anger, beyond grief. Something older. More exhausted than either of them.
All those nights.
All those hours standing on a stage in a club she had never wanted to work in.
Every difficult thing she had endured while telling herself it was temporary. Necessary. The cost of eventually getting somewhere better.
And beneath all of it, this.
This had always been waiting.
Growing quietly beneath the surface. Adding to itself. Waiting for the moment it could no longer be ignored.
She gathered the last receipt and stood.
"Sir."
Her voice was steady.
She noticed it immediately and held on to it. Nothing was gonna shaken her.
The papers hung at her side as she looked directly at the man on the sofa. Looking away would cost her something she could not afford to lose.
"My entire body would not cover this amount."
She let the numbers speak for themselves.
"You do understand that. I would lose my life and the debt would still remain." She paused for a second. "It would not work. Whatever your men believed they were bringing you tonight, it would not work. I am not worth fifty million pesos in parts. We are both at the losing end."
Because, her heart, kidneys and liver, no matter how much they get sold in the black market, they won't amount to that, she knew it... If he did so, she would lose her life and he would lose money.
The man said nothing.
He simply watched her with the same deep, unhurried patience.
"I can work 24/7" she continued. " Whatever is owed, I understand the debt belongs to them, not to me. But I am currently what's available."
Her hands tightened slightly around the papers.
" I will work to cover it. However long that requires."
Silence settled between them.
"What can you do?"
His voice carried no encouragement. No dismissal. Just a question seeking a direct answer.
"And how long before the physical demands become too much for someone in your condition?"
His gaze dropped briefly, clinically, and detached, to her stomach.
Then it returned to her face.
"You are not in a position to work without limits."
Heat rose into her cheeks.
She ignored it.
Her mind was already moving, turning over the problem the way it had learned to do years ago, searching for an angle, for the one practical path through a situation that offered none.
She had done this her entire life.
No one had ever helped her solve anything.
"The drugs," she said.
The word landed heavily in the room.
Who didn't know drugs ruled around the town and city, she won't be the first one to sin! They should blame her father and brother for this!
The man's expression did not change but was subtly surprised!
But not a single line of his face moved.
"I can sell them," Daniella continued evenly, forcing her voice not to betray the fear building in her chest. "I know the town. I know who buys, who uses, who has real money and who only pretends to. I know all the ins and outs of the town..."
She had been born here, and worked at several strip clubs, so she knew more than others would know.
Her gaze held his.
"I've watched Toni Reyes run his supply for years. I know the routes. The customers. The structure of the operation."
She drew a slow breath calming herself.