Page 66 of Conquered Obstacles

Why? So they could try and sweep it under the rug? This way, we hoped to get more evidence against them.

Emily’s friend had been raped by him. At least four women had been, and the others repeatedly sexually assaulted. And yes, there were pictures found on his computers.

She wasn’t willing to go on the record, but I swore to her that I wouldn’t let her college acceptance and scholarship be pulled. The rest was up to her, but she was almost done with the school year so… She had to make the call.

But I went to the college and cheated to help her. I used my power to make it clear to a few deans, the head of her dorm, and a few freshman counselors that they would help her. They would protect her and give her what she needed, unlike the last school that failed her.

We needed to start being a society that didn’t kick victims but took care of them like they should have been from the start. When the system failed, it wasn’t on them. It was on the system to pick up the fucking slack and fix the mistake they allowed.

And if I had to “cheat” to make it happen now and again… Fuck free will. Seriously, I was so over it. If I had to force people to do the right thing and help people until I made the world pull its head out of its collective asses, then so be it.

Emily was also living with Megan and her mom. Emily had gone to the mat with her parents and said she’d move out and get a full-time job at the factory and let everyone know that it was because they’d failed at their job as parents and knowingly let her around a predator for a college referral letter… Or they could let her live with Megan until college.

They took the latter. It was easier to cover up with their friends. They offered financial assistance to Megan’s mom to cover taking care of Emily.

From what the twins told me, the dad was ready to wash his hands of it all and make it happen, the drama too much for him. The mom wanted to die on that hill and thought Emily was an ungrateful brat and should grow up. But at least the dad was smart enough to believe we would help Emily and make it a disaster for his life if that was what she wanted.

Not everyone should be parents. Truly.

And then the witch had the balls to walk into my bakery while Emily was working. For the first time. Her parents had never come while she worked when she lived with them, but her mother showed up after she’d moved out to harass her.

I was around the counter and in her face so fast, at least she was smart enough to flee. I banned her from the bakery and threatened not only my attorney and the police on her, but a swim in the damn ocean.

While I scared several customers, Emily felt my love for her and my support. That was more important than anything when she was at such an impressionable age and in such a fragile state.

The pass card for men to use in the bakery was going well. It was now for men we’d met who’d come with female customers or someone recommended. Several were human friends of the covens or like the employees of the clinics Demarcus owns, so we knew them. It’d made some waves on social media, but Mary also told me that it’s like a stamp that a guy was worth dating because he respected women.

Oh dear, we were starting trouble again and again.

I also met Holly, and she was basically Cora with a thick New York accent. I adored her. She stayed a few weeks to get a feel of how we do things and was all in. She agreed that each of her team will work here a few weeks and they start off slow, but they want to model our setup.

And we were going to need the help. Wedding season was upon us, and the consultations were more than we could handle already. It seemed to be all Cora was doing and she was completely overwhelmed. It’d helped that we added a huge gallery to the website, but with our popularity, all of the popular wedding venues in Boston and even Cape Cod were trying to work with us.

Cora and I were fine with it, but they had to pick up the cakes and take charge of that then. We were not making deliveries out to Cape Cod a normal thing. Our prices were reasonable enough that if they could afford a wedding in Cape Cod, they could come get their cakes or pay the venue to and then assemble.

So we also added a full-time wedding cake coordinator who handled a lot at the factory. Everything was great with the culinary school teachers giving classes and training employees, and dozens of them were truly talented.

Several of the factories were full throttle now or getting there while new ones were coming online. It’s crazy, but I wasn’t in charge of it all, and Jamie loved his new job.

Oh, and being a business owner. His and Colton’s opening was a huge success. They sold out of several labels of wine and a few of sake that first night. It was all over Boston media that they were like the place for bougie booze and hard-to-get fun.

There were reporters there for the tasting, and the restaurants who paired up with them to provide food got a lot of good press as well. Colton said restaurants in NYC are dying to get access to the hard-to-get wines and now the ones they have exclusive deals with because of me.

So it went way better than anyone could possibly have considered. I was glad for that… And I took a bit of credit.

Not just for all the good karma they both received from my power—which they deserved—but I did bless the event. So that absolutely worked out well. I was glad for it.

Really glad for it, even if Jamie was always working too hard and not spoiling me as much. All I had to do was give him a pout and he’s gobbling me up and apologizing for ignoring his sexy girlfriend.

Yes, I do know that I’m spoiled. I like it and spoil him too.

As best as I can. I’m working on it.

And I did set an appointment to speak with the psychiatrist. After Mother’s Day, we’ve got our first appointment set. I wasn’t happy it was so far away, but she had something out of the country already going on, and she said sometimes people got so wound up to attend sessions and be “fixed” after traumas that it could actually be counterproductive.

I had a feeling she was putting me in that category as if she knew how fast I’d taken her business card. Fine, I could take a few weeks and come to terms with the idea of therapy.

Things were going amazing with Costco. They keep ordering more and more of our spring items. And the festival of pies was a huge hit.

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