Page 15 of Conquered Obstacles

I blinked at her a moment.

Yes, yes, there were always ways. Jamie had known Colton was a warlock. Even if Colton had been gagged, he could have told me some of it. There was a lot he still could have let me in on. There were always ways.

Tears filled my eyes as I nodded in agreement.

“I’m sorry,” Colton whispered from behind me, clearly having given chase. “I… You gave me my favorite muffin and knew I would want the juice after having worked out. I thought—I’m sorry, Arabella. I won’t touch you.”

“You are not to be alone with her,” Cora bit out. “No, Colton. I—what the fuck is wrong with you? How you could break her trust and keep something so important—I could never trust you again after such a lack of judgment. It wasn’t just some random secret she was keeping. It was a safety net for her protection! You violated it the way she was violated. Don’t you get that?”

“No,” he whispered. “I didn’t—I don’t. I… I helped protect her by knowing.”

“No, you fucking placated her and played her. That’s not protecting her but instead makes you not trustworthy,” Cora snapped. “It makes you one of those Alpha assholes who thinks the man is the boss and handles all the important things and the woman just does what she’s told. You coddled her and didn’t show her respect as a partner, not helped her heal, you asshole.”

“You’re my hero,” I whispered, blinking up at her.

She kissed my hair. “You’re too in the middle of your trauma still to figure out what you feel. Being outside of it helps. Let’s go have your meeting because I know the apartments are bugging you while everyone else wants more from you. And then I’m going to ask you for more because I have something bugging me like that and it will be good for you too.”

“Deal.”

“Good,” she sighed. “Thank you because she’s like a sister to me, and I thought I’d have to tell her no so I didn’t break you.” She sniffled. “Adulting is too hard some days.”

“It really is.”

We went back to the second floor, and Cora made Colton clean up my mess while she sat with me.

He did and cleared his throat before he sat back down. “Yes, I did publicly state we would be handling the project, so thank you. I didn’t think that’s what this was… I apologize.”

“Asshole,” Cora grumbled, shaking her head. “Okay, so you want to get moving on the apartments. Do you want him to handle management too?” She chuckled when I sighed. “You want him to handle management too even if he normally handles fancy apartments like his, he knows how and he can make the exception for these, right, Colton?”

“Yes, of course,” he immediately agreed. “I don’t care about that.”

But it would probably do something to his company, right?

No, I didn’t care. He was a big boy and could handle whatever.

I pulled out the map I’d brought with of the area and what I owned, glad it didn’t get ruined when I’d made a mess. “Do we need to buy something else or is there room? I know we were originally discussing—everything is so much bigger now and… I don’t know what is what anymore.”

And I was fried. I didn’t want to talk about this with him and he’d thought I’d just made up something to see him. I felt fragile now, and I just wanted to run.

I hated myself for that. I blinked back tears and covered my face.

“Hey, you’re doing great,” Cora whispered. “You’re being strong enough to sit here so there aren’t whispers and more shit thrown at you later. I wouldn’t be able to handle that and would just work with another firm, okay? Don’t be so tough on yourself. Think about the fun you’ll have tonight with Jamie and the smiles he’ll make you have.”

“You’re mean,” I mumbled.

“He deserves it,” she said easily. “Now that I know more, he fucking deserves it.”

Colton cleared his throat and moved the map closer. “Yes, we were discussing building a smaller building right on location, but when you were talking numbers, I realized that would never work. I started looking into other ideas and found a few. The one I like best is that four blocks away there is actually an apartment complex.”

“Oh, so they can just rent there?” I asked, looking where he was pointing.

“No, it’s shut down,” he explained. “It wasn’t kept up to code and the owners were foreclosed on. No one lives there, and it’s currently a danger that’s causing problems for the area. Some kids just got in trouble there and someone jumped from the roof and the police are worried about what else will happen next.”

“So buy it, tear it down, and build something new,” Cora muttered.

“Exactly. And have someone on staff always to shuttle from the front office to the factories since it’s a few blocks away. Otherwise, they can walk, but have the option for when the weather’s bad but also to remember that they might have to wait and to leave early.”

I nodded. “Or we have the buses for the kids, and the shift getting off can pick up the next shift. We can work that out. We also won’t just get rid of the dorms we set up, but this will be better for those we trust and who have been with us the longest. We can’t bring in everyone right away, and they won’t be ready tomorrow. But employees only.”

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