Chapter 6 - What Darnell WantedDarnell asked Kiara to meet him alone.
He chose a coffee shop forty minutes from the house.
That bothered her immediately.
“Why here?”
He smiled.
“Neutral ground.”
“From Marcus?”
“From everybody.”
Kiara sat across from him.
Without the graduation suit, Darnell looked less imposing. He wore a black polo and jeans. Gray showed along his beard.
He looked human.
That made everything harder.
“I did ask your mother for money,” he said.
“Three times.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“My business had a bad year.”
“What business?”
“James Logistics.”
Kiara vaguely remembered photographs of two cargo vans on his social media.
“You own that?”
“I started it six years ago.”
“How bad is bad?”
Darnell leaned back.
“You asking as my daughter or my accountant?”
“My major is finance.”
“I know.”
“That didn’t answer me.”
He smiled faintly.
“You always did have Monique’s mouth.”
Kiara did not smile back.
Darnell sighed.
“I owe some vendors. One van died. Insurance went up. A client stiffed us.”
“How much debt?”
“I’m handling it.”
“How much?”
“Seventy-three thousand.”
Kiara stared at him.
“And you asked Mom for fifteen?”
“I needed breathing room.”
“Why her?”
“Because she knew what I’d been through.”
“No. Why not a bank?”
Darnell looked toward the window.
“My credit isn’t great.”
The answer arrived too quickly.
Kiara folded her hands.
“Did you contact me because you thought Marcus had money?”
Darnell’s eyes snapped back.
“No.”
“Did you?”
“I contacted you because I turned forty-seven and realized I had a daughter graduating from college who barely knew me.”
“You knew that before forty-seven.”
His jaw tightened.
“I was ashamed.”
Kiara looked down.
That sounded true.
Darnell continued.
“Every year I stayed gone, coming back got harder.”
“So you stayed gone longer.”
“Yes.”
For the first time, he did not excuse it.
Kiara’s anger softened a fraction.
Then he said, “Marcus never made it easy either.”
She looked up.
“Stop.”
“What?”
“You keep putting his name inside your decisions.”
Darnell fell silent.
“I asked why you stayed gone. Marcus wasn’t in the question.”
He studied her.
“You really are his kid.”
The sentence surprised them both.
Darnell looked almost wounded after saying it.
Kiara felt an ache in her chest.
“I don’t know what I am.”
“You’re my daughter.”
“Biologically.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Why? Everybody else is obsessed with definitions.”
Darnell leaned forward.
“Marcus had access to you because he lived there.”
“He earned access.”
“And I’m trying to earn it now.”
“Then stop rewriting what happened.”
Darnell’s eyes hardened.
“You think money made him your father?”
“No.”
“Because he sure brought up tuition fast.”
“You brought up being pushed out first.”
Darnell looked away.
Kiara noticed a manila folder beside his chair.
“What’s that?”
“Work stuff.”
“Then why bring it?”
Darnell placed his hand on top of the folder.
“It’s something I wanted your opinion on.”
Kiara waited.
He opened it.
Inside was a business plan.
JAMES LOGISTICS EXPANSION — PHASE II
There were revenue projections, routes, contracts, and financing options.
Kiara skimmed them.
“These margins are optimistic.”
Darnell smiled.
“There’s my finance graduate.”
“Your fuel assumptions are outdated.”
“I could use somebody like you.”
Kiara looked at him.
He tapped the page.
“I’ve been thinking about making this a family company.”
A feeling moved through her that was not quite suspicion and not quite hope.
“What does that mean?”
“Bring you in.”
“I have a job starting next month.”
“Doesn’t have to be full-time.”
He turned a page.
A proposed ownership chart appeared.
DARNELL JAMES — 75%
KIARA JAMES — 25%
Kiara stared at her name.
“I never agreed to this.”
“It’s a concept.”
“Why twenty-five percent?”
“Because lenders like continuity. Younger leadership. Education.”
There it was.
Not a confession.
Not yet.
But a shape was forming.
Kiara closed the folder.
“What lender?”
Darnell’s expression changed.
“Kiara—”
“What lender?”
He rubbed his chin.
“A regional bank.”
“For how much?”
“Sixty thousand.”
Her stomach dropped.
“And what do they want from me?”
Darnell did not answer immediately.
That silence told her more than any speech could.
Kiara pushed the folder back across the table.
“You didn’t bring me here because you wanted financial advice.”
Darnell’s face tightened.
“I brought you here because I want to build something with my daughter.”
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She stood.
“And somehow your daughter always comes attached to a dollar amount.”
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