Chapter 11
I don’t wear my money. I eat it.
— Maven to a client
MAVEN
I was angry.
Really , really angry.
And it all stemmed from men.
One , I got my business back open just for my lawyer to say she received a letter from my dad’s lawyer saying that he would abide with the cease and desist and wouldn’t come at me anymore.
That’d just made me angry because not only had I had to send the letter in the first place, but I got myself all worked up to fight back and he was just backing off? Like that?
Oh , and then there was the voicemail from Auden saying he’d have to cancel our date.
No explanation. No ‘ I’ll call and get back with you for a better time.’
Just a cancellation, and he hadn’t answered any of my texts since.
Then all the mishaps started happening.
My brand new, thirty-thousand-dollar oven stopped working.
Oh , and then my insurance adjuster let me know that they’d dropped my insurance but wouldn’t tell me why.
But , if I was being completely honest with myself, I was mostly angry because I’d had a really good day with Auden , and then nothing. He had texted and asked me out on a date, then promptly cancelled. It was like he’d written me off.
That was three days ago, and I was just done.
Even worse, I hadn’t seen a single Carter come into my place of business.
And I wasn’t the only one who noticed, either.
“ What’s going on right now?”
I looked over at the third police officer to walk out the door today with a box full of goodies.
“ What ?” I grumbled, aggressively scrubbing down the counters.
“ Why is every police officer in existence coming in here now except for the Carters , who always came regardless of who it would piss off?” Pepper questioned, looking confused at the back of the police officer who was now getting into his car.
“ I wish I knew,” I admitted. “ I think I might’ve done something wrong maybe? I don’t know.”
She looked over at me where I was perched on my seat.
“ How’re the cramps today?” she asked.
Awful .
Really fucking awful.
Not only was I blessed with heavy periods that sucked. I was blessed with heavy periods that lasted a really long time.
I was on day seven of probably ten, and was eating iron supplements like they were candy, and I was about sick of eating red meat.
“ Okay ,” I lied.
She eyed me sitting in the chair, raised her brow, and I sighed. “ Okay , so they’re still bad. But they’ll start to taper off soon.”
She sighed. “ Back to the Carters . I haven’t seen them in here in three days. Why ? You didn’t do anything wrong. I saw how he was looking at you when y’all left me to the Spanish Inquisition .”
I tossed her a smirk, which she ignored.
The door opened again, and an official looking lady came in with her eyes taking everything in as she moved toward us.
“ Hello , welcome to Pie Hard . Can I help you?” I said sweetly.
The woman glanced at me, then at Pepper , before saying, “ I’m Garnett Carter .”
I blinked. “ Umm , hi.”
“ I came to tell you something, but I don’t want you to take it out on my son because his father and brothers gave him dumbass advice.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
I tilted my head at her and said, “ And what would that be?”
“ Can I have a muffin first?” She looked at the display case. “ I’ve been staunchly against this place since the beginning because my kids prefer your food over mine.”
I burst out laughing. “ And you’re eating one of my muffins? Which kind do you want?”
“ I hate to admit this, but they’re right. Your baked goods are preferable over mine. Which , in the end, I guess works out well because now I don’t have to cook as much.” She pointed at the peach muffins. “ That one.”
I pulled one out of the display case and handed it over.
“ These are delicious,” she gestured toward a table. “ You want to come have a seat?”
Pepper patted me on the shoulder and said, “ Go .”
I went, taking a seat at the table with Auden’s mother moments after skirting around the counter.
My place wasn’t the biggest, but there were four large tables in the front that allowed for people to eat a quick bite if they felt so inclined.
I leaned forward in the seat across from Garnett , I raised a brow at her, waiting.
She shot me a wink before digging into her muffin, but she did talk in between bites.
“ So my husband came home complaining about your father three days past.” She paused. “ Well , that’s not quite true. He’s been complaining about your father since Chief Austin took the chief position, and that’s understating it. But this thing he was complaining about three days ago was new for him.”
“ What was it?” I asked, having a feeling I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear.
She took another bite of her muffin, chewed, and said, “ So good.”
I smiled despite the nerves that were taking flight in my belly.
“ What I understand is that Auden was at your place when he got the SWAT call out, right?” she asked.
“ Yes ,” I drawled.
“ Well , after he left that, he had to go to a SWAT training meeting. At that meeting, your brother confronted him before it started. Then , when the meeting was dismissed, your father cornered him and told him that he needed to stop seeing you or else.” She came out and said it.
“ What was the or else?” I asked, stomach sinking at her words.
“ Well , at first it was his career with DPD .” She crossed her arms over her chest. “ But then when the chief saw that wasn’t working, he started to threaten you. After a little back and forth, Auden agreed to leave you alone if Chief Austin would stop harassing you and let you run your business.”
My mouth fell open. “ What ?”
“ And my husband and his brothers gave him advice,” she continued, as if she hadn’t just shocked the hell out of me. “ They convinced Auden to give them a few days so that they could work something up, come to an agreement, or whatever the hell they thought they could accomplish. And in those few days, he was to leave you alone and not contact you, and act like he was following his word.”
I scrubbed between my eyes with my pointer finger before saying, “ Great .”
“ The rest of them have stayed away because they’re worried that them coming here will negatively affect you and your business. And they don’t want it to shut down,” she said. “ Auden truly feels like if he comes around you, Austin will retaliate, and actually take your business out.”
I shook my head in absolute horror. “ I don’t even know what to say.”
“ I can tell you’re mad,” she consoled.
I was already shaking my head. “ I’m not mad at Auden or the rest of the Carters . I’m furious, though, with my father. I have been controlled by him for so freakin’ long, and I’m so over it. I don’t even know what to do anymore.”
Maybe it was actually time to leave.
Maybe Auden had made the right decision. Maybe we weren’t meant to be. Maybe I was meant to leave the stupid state and get as far away from my father as possible.
“ Don’t give up,” she said quietly. “ Give us some time to fix this. To find a way.” She patted my hand. “ Germaine and I were already talking about retiring. We want to spend time with our grandbabies. And the boys were already talking about moving to the Sunnyvale Police Department because it’s closer.”
I couldn’t breathe.
They would change their entire life around just to support me?
I couldn’t let that happen.
I just couldn’t.
“ No ,” I was shaking my head. “ That can’t happen.”
She patted my hand again. “ It’s absolutely adorable that you think that you can control a Carter . It’s cute, really. But you can’t. Once they get into their head that something has to be a certain way, it’ll never leave until they prove it was the wrong idea. Hence me being here, telling you all of this. They would’ve figured this out, and it would’ve been months down the road, and then he would’ve come begging. I just see no reason to make you both torture yourselves in the process.”
She had a valid point but…
“ Give us some time,” she urged, then paused, a thoughtful smile coming over her face. “ How do you feel about moving to Sunnyvale ?”
I burst out laughing.
But hours later, as I was closing up the shop, I was doing some serious thinking.
Maybe that really should be my first step—moving out of Dallas .
Maybe , if I was in a different city, he wouldn’t be able to affect me as much.
On the other hand, Auden and my relationship was at the baby level. Moving there so hastily might be a bad idea. What if we didn’t work out, and we were in the tiny town together? How would that work?
Maybe I should wait…
I’d thought long and hard about what I wanted to do when it came to my future plans, and my entire being was telling me that I needed to go.
Athena called me when I was on my third Sunnyvale rental listing able to accommodate a bakery.
“ Hey , two things,” she said before I could say hello. “ One , can I have your DNA ? Two , can I use your photo in my program as a test control?”
I smiled at her way of greeting. Never a dull moment with my genius best friend.
“ I mean, I guess.” I giggled. “ What’s the photo and the DNA for?”
“ Well ,” she said, “ I was building the app, as you suggested…”
She trailed off, and I waited patiently for her to continue.
Since it was such a normal thing for her to just forget that she was having a phone conversation with me, I didn’t try to catch her attention.
It took her a solid two minutes, and I went about what I was doing before she’d called.
I skipped through two rentals that had really weird five-year leases required, then came to a stop at one that looked like it was perfect for my needs.
I bookmarked it and kept searching.
“ Anyway ,” she started back up again like it hadn’t just taken her two minutes to speak in the middle of a story. “ So I was thinking last night that when a child goes missing, they collect the parents’, or even the child’s, DNA and upload it to the NCMEC — National Missing Persons DNA Program — DNA database. And so I want to write that program into this app, too. Like , if someone is interested in submitting their DNA because they feel like maybe something’s off about their living arrangements? I don’t know. I just felt like it would be a great idea to upload it into the app. Plus , if not you, I’d have to ask my mom to help. And she told me to stop looking a long time ago.”
I remembered that.
When Athena’s sister first went missing, Athena’s parents had gone ballistic, and spent every penny they had on private investigators and any resource that might help them get their daughter back. In the end, they ran out of money. Her husband died, her son died, and Athena’s mother just couldn’t handle the heartbreak anymore. So she’d asked Athena to stop looking.
Honestly , I could understand. Really , I could.
But I knew that Athena would never stop.
Not until she found what she was looking for. I mean, she was building her entire life and skillset around finding her sister. Why would she quit?
“ Well , then sure. You can use anything of me you want,” I said. “ Will your app be able to access the DNA database?”
My question had an answer about thirty seconds later. “ Yes , it will. Eventually . I’ll have to ask for permission first. It’s not like they’ll just give everyone’s DNA out to some rando off the street. But if the app gets popular enough, there might literally be people reaching out to me to add their DNA outside of the database. People want to find their loved ones.”
Just like she did.
“ How do you want it?” I asked.
“ Mouth swab,” she answered. “ I’ll bring the kit over. Then run it through the lab at school and upload it from there. I can access one of your photos that we’ve taken on my phone.”
“ When are you…”
There was a knock on my door, and I knew without checking it was Athena .
I hung up and swung the door open wide, revealing my best friend.
Athena was short, Asian , and the cutest little thing that you’d ever seen.
Her parents had adopted her at the age of three, bringing her home from Japan to a house full of other adopted children. Gavrel had been from Russia , and their little sister was brought home from a hospital in Portland , Oregon .
She was a firecracker, though, and so full of life at times that it was blinding.
“ Hey ,” she chirped, waving her cell phone at me. “ I’m here.”
I snickered and waved her in.
“ What’s new with you?” she asked as her eyes zeroed in on the table where my computer was resting. “ New places?”
“ Yeah ,” I said. “ So listen to what happened to me today.”
I explained everything, telling her every detail of the last couple of hours.
“ Wow ,” Athena shook her head. “ So you’re thinking about moving to Sunnyvale ? Really ?”
I nodded, my heart in my throat.
I really was.
This was a huge step.
“ And do you think that your dad will let you live in peace over there?” she asked as she uncapped a white tube and handed me a stick.
I rubbed it on the inside of my mouth before answering.
“ Well , I don’t know that he’ll leave me alone. But it’s my hope that I’ll be out of his reach forty minutes away. Plus , I’m thinking about taking this bakery and turning it into something else anyway. I don’t like the hours.”
She rolled her eyes.
She knew I didn’t like the hours.
Hell , who would like getting up that early in the morning?
She capped the tube and dropped it into her pocket before scrolling through my saved places.
The one that’d originally caught my eye caught hers, too, and she pointed at it. “ Email them and ask about that one.”
That was why we were best friends.
“ Do you think I’m making a hasty decision by moving there? I mean, what if Auden and I don’t work out?” I pushed.
Athena’s gaze came to meet mine. “ Since when have we ever done the safe thing, Maven Amalia ?”
She had a point.
I mean, I’d opened the bakery on a whim. I’d moved out of my parents’ house in the dead of night. I’d bought a car just to spite my father. I always jumped in with two feet, and never tested the waters first.
What was any different about this time?