Page 78 of Frayed Owner

“I will do the same. Be well, Bevin.”

I honestly believed she meant it.

19

IKEA was awesome. And overwhelming. Andpacked. And so full of fun ideas. It was… Wow. A lot.

It was a lot.

It also gave me a lot of ideas of what I wanted for my new room—even the design and layout. How I wanted the walk-in closet and my dream bathroom.

It gave me license to dream, and I hadn’t been doing much of that with my freedom, only surviving.

Personally at least.

So that was nice. Really nice.

And so was Kelton. I felt like we were on the same page again, in step as we walked around the ginormous store. We took pictures and I sent ideas to Clare giving the specifics about what I wanted finally. She’d been waiting for me to make some decisions, but… All I did was make them most days. It was overwhelming.

Plus, I wanted her focused on the new store. There were basically two real magical malls that were hidden from humans.

Or really only two worth mentioning and weren’t shady as fuck.

We had our main store in the nicer one, and it was a staple of that mall along with Fortunate Cookies and other pricey establishments. Could we have had another store there?

Yes, and the owners had asked us repeatedly when they’d learned we were expanding. But that gave me “Starbucks on every corner and across the street from each other” vibes that I didn’t like. So we were going to the other mall this time.

Also, because it was owned by a different top-tier family and that would make sure people behaved. It was always smarter to not allow one person to hold all the cards against you.

Ever.

But yeah, IKEA was great—the whole weekend was. My tutoring on Sunday was fantastic. Mrs. Reid and Wyatt declared I was all caught up to where I should be. They were going to have reviews now and again since I didn’t have years of using all of the spells and information regularly like others my age.

I was caught up though. I got it and wasn’t behind.

Most importantly, Ifeltthat way. In Spell Circles 101 especially I felt like I was with the class as well.

It was just a weekend to feel in step. Nice.

And for good news. Sunday at dinner, Jasmine came flying into the room with a grin saying the Curtis family had officially dropped their lawsuit. All they asked was that we didn’t make a big deal about it and protected their privacy and grief.

I was nodding my head to agree until Jasmine, Tracey, Clare, and even Wyatt who had stayed for dinner looked like they were going to throttle me.

Right, we weren’t doing that after they’d done everything they could to smear me. Okay, got it. Made sense. They couldn’t use their grief as a weapon to get what they wanted.

Emma had said as much on our long run that morning. That I wasn’t responsible for their grief when I was the real victim. I needed to start seeing myself as the victim of what had happened instead of the perpetrator. I didn’t go looking to start the fight or kill someone.

I was protecting Kevin and myself because we were the targets.

Tracey wasfuriousthat they made such a request of me after dropping the suit and trying to pressure me… Especially when it was clear it would work because I was such a good person.

Jasmine promised that she would handle it, so nothing shocked me more than seeing Clare with Jasmine at her side doing a press conference the next morning.

“I understand too many people don’t have high opinions of women in our society, but the degree to which people treat us like morons is outrageously insulting,” Clare started with a bang. “And yet there were many without a brain who believed Charles Shaw wasn’t behind the lawsuit the Rices filed against my sister, Bevin.

“So really, idiocy doesn’t have a sex, just people who don’t think for themselves. It’s beyond time we do that, yeah?” She gave people a moment with that. “The Rice family has dropped the lawsuit. Lovely. It should never have been filed. I will repeat that for those late to the party—it should never have been filed.

“It died the moment Charles Shaw was out of the picture. It was revenge against my sister that she would not behave like property to a sociopath. Women are not property, and while some will forgive the Rices in their grief, I willnot. Especially when they had the gall to specifically ask Bevin not to make them dropping the lawsuit public.

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