Rowena stamped her foot, frantic.
"You know how things stand right now. Oil prices are climbing hard."
"But they've already sat down to negotiate. The moment the strait reopens, oil is going to crash."
"You'll lose everything down to the shirt on your back!"
I nodded. I knew all of it.
In my last life, after I agreed to invest with Dirk, I'd wanted to learn a bit more about where the money went, so I'd started watching the markets.
I remembered it clearly: tomorrow the negotiations would succeed, the strait would reopen, and oil prices would crash.
They'd nosedive all the way down to half their value, wiping out countless people.
But thirty days later, the peace would break again.
The strait would be blockaded once more, oil would go on a mad climb, and on the fortieth day it would hit its peak.
I couldn't say too much right now, though.
I just gripped her hand tight.
"Do me one more favor. Take all the money and buy oil futures at forty days."
Rowena stared at me for a long moment.
Then she let out a bitter laugh.
"You really have lost your mind."
"But if you're going to burn through your fortune, better you do it than let Dirk get his hands on it."
"You've got two hundred million total. I'll put every cent of it in right now."
I raised a hand and cut her off.
A cold smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.
"Two hundred million, how's that enough? If we're playing, let's play big."
Back home, a woman in a sharp business suit was sitting on the couch.
The moment she saw me, she stood and held out her hand.
"Ms. Pruitt, so nice to meet you. I'm Anita Fox from Summit Capital."
Dirk jumped in warmly to introduce her.
"Anita's a gold-star investment agent. Anything she handles, she at least doubles it!"
I shook Anita's hand coolly, while a towering rage caught fire inside me.
This was the very creature who'd hounded me into a corner in my last life. My creditor.
When I was dying in that ring, she'd walked in on Dirk's arm, grinning, so pleased with herself.
She'd sneered that I was an idiot, that all of it had been a trap they set.
All to strip me of my entire fortune.
That was how I finally learned that Dirk's so-called investing was just him and his lover funneling away every drop of blood and sweat I'd earned.
And killing me on top of it, so the two of them could fly off together.
Anita rattled on, pitching me real estate, boxing gyms, cryptocurrency.
Inside, I couldn't stop laughing coldly.
In a market like this one, putting money into any of that was no different from suicide.
On the surface, though, I played the fascinated listener, nodding along.
Seeing me take the bait, Anita grew even smugger.
"Mr. Vance let me look over your assets. Total valuation, a hundred fifty million."
"Ms. Pruitt, I promise you, follow my plan and your assets will grow at least fivefold in a year!"
I smiled coldly.
Dirk really couldn't wait. He'd already gotten a full, precise picture of everything I owned.
He'd even dared to doctor the books, shaving fifty million clean off my money.
I pretended to be tempted.
"Returns really that high?"
Anita's eyes lit up.
She traded a quick, triumphant look with Dirk and hurried to pull out the agreement.
"Don't you worry, Ms. Pruitt. In our line of work, the thing we value most is our reputation."
"I'd never smash my own signboard."
"You sign, and I'll start working right away!"
I picked up the pen and set the tip to the paper.
Then, under everyone's eager eyes, the tip stopped short.
I slapped my forehead in dismay.
"Oh no, look at my memory. I can't sign this."
They all went tense at once.
Dirk blurted out, "Faith, you go back on your word like that, and I swear I'll cut you off!"
I smiled coldly. For a man trying to reel me in, he really couldn't wait.
I put the pen away and gave a helpless shrug.
"I've already put all my money into investments."
"Had Rowena help me take out a mortgage loan for another two hundred million. Four hundred million total, all of it heavy into oil futures."
The living room went silent in an instant.
All three of them stared, eyes wide with disbelief.
"What, you bought oil?!"
