Chapter 35
ELLORA
As I flipped the Closed sign on the door, it felt like I was lowering my mother into the ground all over again. There was a finality to it. The soft jingle of the bell as the door clicked shut behind me made my throat burn and my eyes sting.
After everything I’d been through, all I wanted now was to sleep for three weeks, but the staircase was lined with the last of my boxes, the rest of my inventory in a storage facility I couldn’t afford to pay for.
“You’ll be okay.” Bree gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze, sighing as she looked at the closed door in front of us.
“I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but that empty space in there wasn’t the store.
You’re the store, babe. The heart of it, anyway.
Wherever you go from here, it’ll just get better. ”
I inhaled a deep breath of air that no longer smelled like freshly baked goods and shook my head. “I don’t even know if I’m going anywhere at all. I’ll have to sell all the stock, but I might just try to do it online.”
“That’s not a bad idea.” She paused for a beat before she motioned at the boxes. “Can I help you carry those to the car?”
“Thanks, but I’ll be fine. You’re here for moral support, not physical labor.”
She chuckled. “I could use the workout. Studying for my exams has eaten away at my time for everything else, including exercise. Come on, let’s do this.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t get another word out. My chest ached like I’d been holding my breath for weeks, and maybe I had. It wasn’t even about the store anymore. It was what it stood for. The life I’d built with my mom, the laughter that used to fill this place, and all the dreams we’d had for it.
Now it was gone, just like her, and I was barely able to stop myself from coming apart at the seams. Deep down, I knew I would get through this, even if only because I had to, but right now, I felt completely and utterly defeated.
I had nothing left. No mom. No business. No boyfriend.
If I could afford to, I would have hopped on the first flight out of the city and go wherever the plane was flying. Preferably a tropical island where I could live out the rest of my days sleeping on the beach and drinking cocktails out of overripe fruit.
“I’m proud of you, you know,” Bree said softly, sliding an arm around my shoulders and giving me a squeeze. “You made something beautiful here. Even if this chapter is over, it mattered. It will matter again when you rebuild, and you will rebuild. I know it.”
That did me in. Tears welled on my eyelids and I pressed my palms against them like that might hold them back. “I just wish I didn’t feel like I failed her.”
“You didn’t,” she said, her voice suddenly fierce and sure. “You did not fail her, Ellora Kinney. You kept the store alive as long as you could. It’s not your fault that your landlord sold the building or that it’s being torn down.”
“Maybe not, but I can’t help but feel like this wouldn’t have been happening if I’d just worked harder.”
“That’s bulldust and you know it,” she said firmly. “This development has been in the works since before you even met Holden. Nothing you could’ve done would’ve stopped it. You could’ve been the most successful business on this block and he still would’ve earmarked it for his project.”
A harsh scoff came out of me, completely unintended. “I still can’t believe it’s him. I’ve never felt so stupid in my life. How did I miss it? How did he blindside me so completely?”
I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window at the end of the hall and it startled me. I looked like hell, my eyes puffy, my hair a mess, and that gaunt, hollowed-out kind of tired skin that no nap could fix.
Bree took my face in her hands and turned me toward her, those bright blue eyes strict and filled with a confidence I no longer felt.
“Everyone missed it. Hell, even Holden fucking missed it. You’re not stupid.
You just got caught off guard. It happens to all of us sometimes.
Now let’s go. Things aren’t going to change just because we’re standing here, moping about it. ”
A short bark of laughter escaped me. “Yes, ma’am. You’re not wrong.”
I didn’t feel any better, but somewhere within, her words had sparked something to life. I just had to figure out what it was.
As we turned toward the stairs, my phone buzzed in my pocket.
I didn’t even want to check it. It was probably another legal notice, another reminder of everything I was losing.
I pulled it out of my pocket anyway, refusing to hide from reality just to stress myself out even more while I wondered what it was about.
When I saw the text on my screen, my breath caught. It wasn’t another notice, but it was a reminder of something I’d lost, alright. Although I wasn’t sure I could’ve lost it when I wasn’t convinced I had it in the first place. Even so, I clicked into the text and quickly scanned it.
Holden: Please come to tonight’s class. You’ll want to see this lesson.
For a second, I just stared at it. What the hell does that mean?
I didn’t owe him anything. Not after what he’d done, but my thumb hovered over the screen longer than I wanted to admit.
No matter how much I hated it, how much I wanted to hate him, my heart still skipped at the sight of his name.
I still wanted to believe that somehow, some way, he was the man I’d thought he was.
In the absence of that certainty, however, I became angrier and angrier the longer I stared at my phone. How dare he text me like this?
As if he hadn’t wrecked my life and walked away with an oops and a shrug. I wanted to tell him to go to hell, to lose my number, and to choke on his own charm, but I’d paid a lot of money for that course and the curiosity was worse than the anger.
It ate at me until I gave in, which was how I ended up sitting in the back row of his classroom again, my arms crossed and my jaw tight, pretending I wasn’t two seconds away from launching a stapler at his head as soon as he graced us with his presence.
Holden finally walked in just a couple minutes before the lecture was set to start, and it was like my world straightened itself out with his appearance.
Everything that had been itchy and sore inside seemed to settle at the sight of him, the way things had been feeling off kilter lately suddenly completely gone.
He looked awful, though. As gorgeous as ever, of course. He couldn’t help that, but tired and a little wrecked around the edges.
Good.
I was equal parts worried and relieved as he walked to the lectern, blue eyes scanning the room until they landed on me. As soon as our gazes connected, I swore I saw his shoulders drop in relief and I felt my features immediately arrange into a scowl.
The nerve of this man.
“Alright, everyone,” he said after clearing his throat, his eyes still only on mine. “Today, we’re going to talk about perspective.”
He switched on the screen, clicked to the first slide, and the words The Renewal Initiative appeared in bold white letters. My stomach dropped all the way to China, my teeth grinding as I stared at those horrible words.
In the back of my mind, however, there was a voice whispering that at least, no matter what he said next, after this, I would know. All my unanswered questions about who he was and whether it had all been some kind of cruel game to him would finally be answered.
“There are a lot of ways to approach a project,” he said. “You can force things to fit your vision, or you can adapt to the situation. You can pick profits first, or people.”
He turned slightly, scanning the class. For just a moment, his gaze flicked toward me, but it was quick and unreadable.
“Case in point,” he continued. “The Renewal Initiative. This is one of mine.”
Another click and a diagram appeared. It featured a block I knew all too well, a couple of skyscrapers standing exactly where my store used to be. My blood went cold and my fight-or-flight instinct kicked in, but I refused to let my butt leave this chair. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“The original plan was to transform a historic city block into a pair of high-rise towers. Shops on the first floor, residential space above, and a courtyard in the middle. Nice, clean, and modern. There would be a Heritage Walk between the two, lined with high-end stores and services. All the kind of stuff that looks great in a proposal packet.”
He paused, hands braced on the podium, but he was looking at his own design like it disgusted him now. I gripped the edge of my desk, my heart hammering against my ribs. What the hell is he doing?
Holden took a step back and the next slide flickered up behind him. “On paper, it’s a great plan. Something investors drool over, but the people who live there now, those who work there, who love there, who cry there? It turns out they don’t want high-rise towers and fancy stores.”
His voice dropped to a tone that was much quieter and heavier. “They want to keep things how they are now. Just better.”
Something sharp twisted in my chest, but he clicked again, and the next slide that came up was a photo of my block. Complete with the old storefronts, the cracked sidewalks, a jumble of color and character that had seen better days.
“There’s a lot of space for better here,” he said, pointing out the obvious. “I think that’s something we can all agree on.”
When he clicked again, an overlay appeared on top of that picture, transparent sketches showing the same buildings but fixed up. New signs. Fresh paint. Flower boxes. Trees for shade. Little benches along the sidewalks.
A soft murmur rippled through the room. Holden kept going, steady but sure, like a man walking straight into his own storm without wavering. “Which brings me to the new plan for the Renewal Initiative.”
He gestured toward the slide featuring the overlay.
“Rather than try to replace what’s already there, we can build on what’s working.
We’ll give these businesses the resources to thrive without forcing anyone out.
Most of those buildings don’t need to be torn down.
They just need care. Repairs. Upgrades.”
He looked at the slide for another second before he turned toward the class, and I knew he wasn’t talking to them anymore at all. He was now only talking to me.
“Our plan is to create a grant system to help local shops upgrade equipment, repair damage, and maybe even expand. We’ll add new, fresh community spaces instead of wiping out the old ones. That way, we keep the charm but improve the infrastructure.”
He exhaled, shaking his head before he looked straight at me. “It’s not as flashy. It’s not as profitable, but it’s right, and as a long-term investment, it’ll pay off better than the initial plan.”
My throat burned with the emotion clawing its way up. He’d changed it. The whole project, and I didn’t know if I wanted to cry or walk up there and kiss him silly in front of everyone.
“We’ll still build the public area in the center,” Holden said, clicking to the last slide.
It showed a digital mock-up of the square and overlaid on top of it was Second Story Sunday.
He cleared his throat like it was feeling the same way as mine, but then he finished.
“We can strengthen the community by investing in it. Not by bulldozing it.”
The room went so still, I could hear the hum of the projector. Meanwhile, he looked around like he was waiting for someone to challenge him and tell him this wasn’t what they’d signed up for.
Nobody did.
Finally, he nodded and clicked the remote again, switching off the screen. “That’s it for tonight. You’re dismissed.”
My fellow students gathered their things slowly, whispering to each other like they weren’t sure what the hell had just happened, but I was. And in the aftermath, all I could do was sit there, frozen, my bag still on the floor, watching him stack his notes like nothing seismic had just occurred.
He glanced up and caught me watching him, and something unspoken passed between us. In that moment, I knew that if this was real, then maybe, just maybe, he had pulled off the impossible. It was the miracle I’d been praying for. I just didn’t know yet if it was his or mine.