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Cassie Lane stood in the hallway of her modest house and opened the envelope with the prestamped words "Final Notice" on it. She stared at it for a long moment trying to gather enough courage to actually open it. She knew what was going to be inside just like she had known what was in the previously marked envelopes that had said "Second Notice" and "Third Notice".
The ranch was in trouble. She had been putting off her own troubles in light of the situation with Reva and Josh and the whole San Cristobel/Prince Richard mess, but now was the moment of truth for her. The moment that she had to finally face and she knew she could no longer put off the gravity of her own predicament.
She ran her long unpolished fingernail through the gummed seal of the envelope and took a deep breath. Maybe she hadn't put this off for too long. Perhaps there was a chance that something could still be worked out regarding the ranch.
She pulled out the piece of paper and began to unfold it. Her whole livelihood was to be determined by the writings on the paper with the Springfield National Bank letterhead at the top.
She began to read the contents of the letter. Her fingers curled up around the paper of their own volition and she realized she was crunching the paper up into a wad. She smoothed out the wrinkles and like a masochist reread the contents knowing that the words hadn't changed in the mere seconds since she had last read the letter.
The ranch was being foreclosed on. The letter stated that she had ten working days to come up with the balance of the mortgage or she would be foreclosed on and the farm sold to satisfy the outstanding balance owed to the bank.
She crunched the paper back in the ball and threw it into the trash. She thought better of it and reclaimed it out of the wastebasket. She couldn't hide her head in the sand about this anymore. She had to face the harsh facts and do what she had to to try and keep the ranch that Hart had loved so much.
Hart. Her wonderful, loving almost husband. Her heart knotted in pain just as it always did when she remembered that her dear Hart was lost to her forever. He would never have let the ranch get in this condition. She was failing him posthumously and she hung her head in utter defeat. Hart had entrusted the ranch to her in his will even though they had never got the chance to make their union legal. Dinah's jealousy and hatred for her had made sure of that and she had killed the man that she had claimed to love in a fit of jealousy and left Cassie without the man she was to spend her life with and left her son without his father.
Tears formed in her eyes but she stubbornly would not allow them to fall. She had gotten herself into this mess and she would find a way to get out of it. She would mortgage everything she owned if need be, but she was going to save this ranch that Hart loved so much and had put his very heart into.
She had neglected the ranch so much lately and she was very ashamed of herself for getting so caught up in her sister's problems that she ignored her own. She resolved to put her own affairs on the front burner so to speak from this moment forward. She was not going to allow the legacy Hart had left her and had worked so hard for, be destroyed by her constant neglect.
She refolded the crumpled letter as best as she could and placed it it's original envelope. She placed the envelope in her purse and called the number that had been given at the top of the letter to call and make an appointment with an officer to discuss this matter further.
She gave her name and information to the receptionist who had answered the phone and was promptly put on hold. She listened to the meant to be soothing music and closed her eyes and thought about her situation once more.
She was so thankful that she had had Sam around to tend to the animals since she was now trying to earn a living working with Josh at Lewis Oil. He had full reign to purchase any supplies needed for the ranch and each month the expenses were drawn off of the special ranch account that she had at the same bank that held the mortgage and a monthly report was mailed to her to give to her accountant each quarter. She was afraid she had been a little lax in keeping the books on the ranch in order as well and she resolved once again to spend her time and energy on her own problems.
She tapped her fingers against the coffee table in a gesture of impatience as she waited for a representative of the bank to pick up on the other end of the telephone. She began to run possible solutions to this problem through her mind. If worse came to worse, she supposed she could borrow some of the money to get the bank off of her back from Josh and Reva once she returned home, but she really didn't want to do that. She had gotten herself into this mess by herself and it was up to her to get herself out. She didn't have much sense when it came to business sometimes, but she sure had her fair share of pride and she would only ask for help if it meant the difference between keeping and losing the ranch.
" I won't fail you Hart" she whispered to no one in particular and then began to tell her tale to the bank officer who had finally answered the phone.
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Ben checked his watch again. This board meeting was taking forever. He had to get back to the Santos mansion. They had more important business going on over there than here.
He had thought at first that sitting on the board of Springfield's largest and only bank would be a gas. He liked having the power and the knowledge that sitting on the board allowed him. He knew none of the other board members wanted him on the board but as President of Sancorp, it was his duty to sit on this cheesy board and there wasn't anything that anyone could do about it. He liked that knowledge even more.
He shouldn't enjoy it so much he knew but no one had ever accused him of being decent before so it didn't much matter to him what people thought. He liked knowing all the financial details of the residents of this fair town and also having the power to squash their dreams.
He had been about to veto the loan that Buzz Cooper had applied for to rebuild his restaurant and then fate had intervened and he had won some sort of lottery and hadn't needed the loan after all.
He had also turned down Josh Lewis's attempt to increase his line of credit at the bank. Lewis Oil had suffered some major trials this year and Josh had needed some capital to get things back on track and Ben had gotten such a joyous feeling to vote against his request.
Too bad that Josh had ended up getting the majority of votes needed to approve his request and Ben had been the only one to vote against him but he still liked that power. He got off on it.
Today was another story however. He had to get back to work. The reports that were in front of him held no interest to him and he was straightening out the papers to put in his briefcase to review later when the name on one of the foreclosure reports caught his eye.
Cassie Lane. That was Blake's friend. The one with the mass of blonde hair that always looked windblown. He remembered her. She was a young widow with two small children.
He looked down at his report that had suddenly caught his interest. Whew. She was in major trouble. Her little ranch that that Jessup fellow had left her was in hock up to its fenceposts.
She was going to have to come up with a considerable amount of money to keep her ranch. It was just a matter of time before she came to the bank begging for help.
She would probably try to go to Josh first for the money but he knew that Josh wasn't in much better shape financially than she was. He wouldn't have the spare money to lend a beggar asking for change much less the six figures that Cassie Lane needed to keep her little spread. The loan he had managed to get from the bank was just enough to keep him solvent for another six months and he would need every cent he had to invest back into the company. No, Josh Lewis wouldn't be helping Cassie in this situation.
She would end up here at the bank soon trying to rectify her unfortunate situation. Who would be the officer to help her? He wanted to monitor this case closely for some reason.
He tried to remember where that ranch was located. It was on the western part of the city near the Springfield border. Sancorp had some land out that way also. If he remembered correctly, it was very close to the Jessup spread and he thought that some of it might actually border some of the Jessup land.
How in the world did she get so far in debt? That was prime land she had on her hands. It was good rich pasture land and it was right next to one of Sancorp's drilling sites. Why the location alone made it worth...........
Suddenly a thought popped into his wicked mind. What if he was to get that1 land and secure it for Sancorp use? He bet that land was rich with more than just good pasture land. He bet there was oil under that land that she was in danger of losing to the bank's foreclosure department.
He skimmed the report and saw that the appraisal on the ranch had already been ordered. He hoped the appraiser didn't catch the possible goldmine underneath the land that presently held only horses and cows and he prayed that no one had yet ordered geological reports on it.
He could bid on this land himself when the time came on behalf of Sancorp. This land could be a major jewel in Sancorp's crown and Carmen would be grateful to him for securing it for the company.
Or he could pay Miss Cassie Lane a visit and offer to help her on behalf of Sancorp and then he could secure the land via some small print.
He smiled for the first time today and then sat back and listened to the rest of the meeting with great interest. Suddenly, he wasn't in such a hurry to get back to Sancorp. He would map out his plan in his mind and he would put feelers out with the bank's employees and then he would know the minute that Cassie Lane made her appearance at the bank on behalf of her nearbankrupt ranch. This was turning out to be a pretty good day after all.
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