She leaned in a little.
“Please begin your presentation. I heard you are very interested in the lands in South Georgia.”
She paused, letting her words sink in. Casually, she continued in a relaxed tone,
“Coincidentally, all the land you covet for your ambitious project belongs to me.”
The silence in the meeting room was so thick that Quacy could hear his own heart beating in his ears.
“A joke. This has to be a joke,” he thought.
But Zelica’s eyes—the eyes that used to look at him with adoration—were now as cold as the marble beneath his feet.
“Zelica…” he managed to say. His voice cracked. “This… this is impossible. Two thousand acres. Okafor Legacy. Where did you get the money?”
Zelica leaned back in her chair, not answering that question. She turned to Seek.
“Mr. Seek, what do you think of the initial proposal from Quacy Constructions, Inc.?”
Seek, who had been silent like a shadow, spoke. His voice was flat and lethal.
“Conceptually ambitious, but financially very weak. Mr. Quacy, your proposal does not include adequate risk analysis, and your profit projections are too optimistic.”
Quacy felt as if he had been doused with ice water. He had come to dazzle a foolish investor. Instead, he was being audited.
“Wait,” he said, trying to control himself. His arrogance started to return, looking for logical explanations. “Ah, I know. Zelica must just be a puppet. This man, Seek, is the one in control. Zelica just got lucky.”
“Z,” he said, trying a softer tone—the tone he used to cajole her. “I don’t know what happened to you, but this is big business. Maybe… maybe we can collaborate. I mean, you know me. I’m the best builder in Atlanta.”
Zelica smiled slightly.
“Oh, I know you very well, Quacy.”
Then she stood up.
“I don’t have more time, but I will give you a chance. My team”—she glanced at Seek—“will do due diligence. A complete life-diligence of your company. We need to see your accounting, your list of assets, and your list of debts. We will not invest a single dollar in a company that is not transparent.”
Quacy hesitated. Opening his books would be a disaster. His company wasn’t as healthy as he bragged.
“Why does it have to be so complicated?” he asked. “It’s me, Z. Your ex-husband.”
“Precisely for that reason, Mr. Quacy,” Seek interrupted. “We must be professional. Take it or leave it. If you reject the audit, we will consider your proposal void and offer our land to another developer. I heard your competition from Buckhead is very interested.”
That was a threat.
Quacy was cornered. If he withdrew, he lost the biggest project of his life. If he moved forward, he had to open his wounds.
“Fine,” he said, forced. “Fine. Audit. I’m not hiding anything.”
Zelica nodded.
“Mr. Seek’s team will contact you. Good afternoon.”
Quacy was escorted out of the mansion. He got into his car with his knees shaking. He didn’t know if he had just escaped danger or if he had just walked into a trap. What he knew was that the Zelica he had just met scared him.
He returned to the apartment at the Sovereign in a mess.
“Babe!” Aniya greeted, jumping off the sofa. She was wearing new silk lingerie. “How did it go? Are we rich yet? When can we start planning the wedding in Turks?”
“Shut up for a second, Aniya. I’m thinking,” Quacy shouted, throwing his jacket on the floor.
Aniya was surprised.
“Hey, why are you yelling at me?”
“The investor is complicated. It’s… it’s really messed up.”
“What do you mean, complicated? Did they say no?” Aniya asked, her tone starting to get anxious.
“No. Not yet. But my God, you’re not going to believe this.”
He pulled at his hair.
“The investor. The CEO… is Zelica.”
Aniya froze.
“What? Zelica? The homeless woman?”
“She’s not homeless anymore,” he growled. “She… she is different. She has a mansion in Cascade. She has a financial consultant. She—she owns the land.”
Aniya’s beautiful face went pale. This was the worst case scenario, not because she loved Quacy, but because her status, her luxuries, and her future depended on his wallet. And now, that wallet was threatened by the woman she had despised the most.
“Surely it’s a bluff,” Aniya shrieked. “She can’t be that smart. Surely she… surely she hooked up with some old rich man. Yes, that’s it. She’s a kept woman.”
Quacy wasn’t listening.
“She wants to audit my company. What am I going to do?”
Aniya’s panic transformed into anger.
“That woman. Who does she think she is, coming back and ruining everything? I’ll handle her,” Aniya hissed.
“Handle what? Don’t get involved.”
But Aniya already had a plan. She knew where the new Black elite of Atlanta gathered. She would find Zelica. She would humiliate that woman in public, reminding her who she really was.
A few days later, through a friend, Aniya discovered Zelica’s location: a luxury boutique café in the new office area of Buckhead.
Aniya arrived with full force—designer clothes from the latest season, a flashy bag, heavy makeup.
She saw Zelica sitting alone in a corner, reading documents on a tablet while drinking tea.
Aniya slammed her hand directly on the table, making noise on purpose.
“Well, well, well. Look who’s here,” she said, her voice projected so everyone could hear. “Mrs. Zelica Okafor, right? Moving fast, huh? Climbing classes—from being thrown out in the lobby to sitting in an expensive café.”
Zelica looked up slowly, looked at Aniya, and then went back to looking at her tablet. She said nothing.
That indifference made Aniya even angrier.
“Hey, I’m talking to you here. Don’t play deaf. Who do you think you are, huh? You’re bothering Quacy. Stay away from him. He is mine now.”
Zelica sighed and put down her tablet.
“Yours?” she asked. Her voice was calm. “Things that are owned are usually objects, Ms. Aniya. Isn’t a human being.”
“Don’t give me lessons. I know your game. You came back to steal Quacy from me again, right? Because he’s successful.”
Zelica let out a little chuckle—a cold laugh.
“Steal Quacy, Ms. Aniya? Why would I bother picking up the trash I already threw out?”
Aniya’s face turned red.
Zelica stood up. Now she was at eye level with her.
“Listen well,” she whispered, but the intensity made Aniya take a step back. “I’m not interested in Quacy. I’m interested in his company. And if you want to know…”
She glanced at the flashy bag in Aniya’s hand.
“Quacy came to me begging me to finance his project. He isn’t even capable of paying for your lifestyle without begging me.”
“Liar.”
“Ah, yes?” Zelica pulled out a black credit card—the Centurion card—from her wallet. A card made of metal. “Today I feel generous.”
She called the waiter.
“The check, please. And also for this lady—I’m paying,” she said.
Zelica looked at Aniya.
“Consider it charity. You need it more than I do.”
She grabbed her tablet and walked out, leaving Aniya frozen in shame, turned into a spectacle for the entire café.
The bait game had worked.
Quacy was humiliated by the urgent need to hand over all his financial documents to Seek’s team. Meanwhile, Zelica humiliated Aniya in the café.
Seek’s team gathered in the war room of the Cascade mansion.
“This isn’t a company, Ms. Zelica,” Seek said, pointing at the large screen showing the cash flow of Quacy Constructions, Inc. “This is a house of cards built on air.”
“Explain,” Zelica said.
“First—materials,” Seek said. “He charges his clients for grade-A cement, but reports show he buys grade-C. He takes a forty percent profit just on material embezzlement. This is illegal and dangerous.”
Zelica remembered a small bridge project Quacy had bragged about. Her stomach turned.
“Second—debts,” Seek continued. “He doesn’t have bank debts. He’s too smart for that. He gets into debt with small suppliers—sand pits, local hardware stores, small equipment rental companies. He delays their payments for months, even years, knowing they don’t have the legal strength to fight him.”
The list of supplier names appeared on the screen. Zelica recognized some names.
“And third—taxes,” Seek said. “He keeps two books. One for himself, one for the IRS. His tax evasion is massive.”
Zelica sat in silence. The man she had been married to for ten years—the man she cared for when he was sick—turned out to be a scammer, an extortionist, and a thief.
“Good,” she said. Her voice was steady.
Seek looked at her.
“Good?”
“Yes. This gives us a weapon. What is the next step?”
“Quacy is only focused on us. On those 2,000 acres,” Seek explained. “He doesn’t realize that his debt to the small suppliers is his weakest point.”
“I want you,” Zelica said slowly. “I want you to buy all that debt.”
Seek smiled.
“I assumed so. I have prepared three shell companies in Delaware. We will buy every outstanding invoice from those suppliers. We will pay cash.”
“The suppliers will be happy,” Zelica said.
“They will be very happy,” Seek replied. “And Quacy will know nothing. He will only feel relieved because the collectors will stop calling him. He will think we are going to give him capital.”
“How much time?” Zelica asked.
“Give me a week. In a week, Quacy Constructions Inc. will no longer owe anything to the small merchants. He will owe you.”
Exactly as Seek predicted, Quacy suddenly felt his life was easier. The calls from angry suppliers stopped. He considered this a good sign. He thought the news that he was going to collaborate with Okafor Legacy Holdings had scared the suppliers off.
He was very wrong.
Feeling the pressure decrease, he decided it was time to take the last step. He had to secure Zelica—not on a business level, but personal.
He knew the old Zelica was weak, forgiving, and still loved him.
He sent a bouquet of white roses, her favorites back then, to the Cascade mansion with a note:
I know I was wrong. Let’s talk like old times. Dinner at our usual spot.
Zelica almost threw the flowers away, but Seek stopped her.
“Go,” he said. “Let him dig his own grave deeper.”
That night, Zelica went to the upscale restaurant where Quacy had once proposed to her.
He was already waiting. He looked impeccable. He ordered the most expensive wine.
“Zel,” he said, taking her hand across the table.
She allowed it. Her skin felt cold.
“I ask for your forgiveness.”
Zelica just looked at him, waiting.
“I know I was very wrong,” Quacy continued. His eyes got misty. His performance was perfect. “Aniya, she is just a toy. I was pressured. Zel, business is hard. And you—you were busy with your mother. I felt lonely.”
“So it was my fault? Was it my fault?” Zelica asked. Her voice was calm.
“No, no, it was my fault,” he rushed to correct himself. “I was blind. I didn’t see the diamond I had until I saw you in the meeting room the other day. I realized.”
“Realized what?”
“How fantastic you are. We can be the best team, Zel. We can start over.”
He leaned in.
“I’ve already left Aniya. She’s already out of the apartment.”
It was a lie. Aniya was shopping with his credit card at that very moment.
“We will dominate Atlanta,” he whispered. “You with your land, me with my expertise. Forget Seek. You don’t need him. You only need me.”
Zelica withdrew her hand slowly.
“Your seduction is good, Quacy. Better than your business presentation,” she said coldly.
He was surprised.
“Maybe you’re right,” Zelica continued, as if thinking.
