Two weeks before everything changed, my assistant, Gabriel, knocked on my door.
“You might want to look at this one yourself,” he said, placing a file on my desk.
I glanced at the name and felt something inside my chest go still.
Travis.
Same birth year. Same hometown.
For a moment, the air in my office felt thinner.
“I’ll handle it,” I said evenly.
When Gabriel left, I opened the file.
He was requesting a $50,000 loan.
On paper, the decision was simple. His credit score was severely damaged. Multiple credit cards were maxed out. Two vehicle payments had been missed. There were outstanding business debts from a construction company that had nearly collapsed during the pandemic. He had no meaningful collateral.
The automated system would have rejected him immediately.
Then I saw the stated purpose of the loan.
Emergency pediatric cardiac surgery.
I closed the file and leaned back in my chair.
There it was. Irony wrapped in urgency.
I asked Gabriel to send him in.
