Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN NOLAN COULDN'T HAVE
Avery arrived at my bakery carrying two coffees and an expression usually reserved for people approaching a funeral.
I was decorating a lemon cake.
I kept working.
“Harper?”
“Morning.”
She stood near the counter.
“I brought your usual.”
“Thank you.”
Neither of us moved.
Then Avery whispered, “Are you angry with me?”
I put down the piping bag.
“No.”
Her eyes filled immediately.
“Really?”
“Avery, you looked like someone had hit you when Nolan said that.”
She nodded.
“I wanted to crawl under the table.”
I crossed the kitchen and hugged her.
She started crying.
We stood there for nearly a minute, surrounded by the smell of vanilla and fresh bread.
Then she pulled back.
“There's something I need to tell you.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“I didn't simply reject Nolan.”
I watched her.
She swallowed.
“I threatened to report him.”
Six months before Nolan and I started dating, Avery worked as a junior analyst at Pierce Capital.
She had recently finished graduate school and was helping review financing for several Chicago redevelopment projects.
Nolan was thirty-two then.
Ambitious.
Charming.
Already being described as one of the city's most promising young investors.
He began asking Avery to dinner.
She refused.
He sent flowers.
She returned them.
Then he started appearing at events where she was working.
I remembered those months.
Avery seemed exhausted all the time.
I thought she was adjusting to her new job.
I had no idea.
“One night, he came to my apartment,” she said.
My heart tightened.
“Without being invited?”
She nodded.
“He said he loved me. He said we belonged together.”
“What did you say?”
“I told him to leave.”
She looked down.
“He got angry.”
I gripped my cup.
“How angry?”
“He said I'd regret humiliating him.”
My stomach dropped.
Avery continued.
“Two weeks later, I found discrepancies in one of the property acquisitions he was supervising.”
“What kind?”
“Documents describing leaseholders as having voluntarily agreed to relocate.”
She swallowed.
“Some hadn't.”
I stared.
“Did you report it?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“The internal review went nowhere. Nolan told management I'd misunderstood the documents.”
I sat down.
Avery continued.
“Then he started dating you.”
The room became painfully quiet.
I stared at my cousin.
“He knew we were related.”
She nodded.
“Of course.”
I thought about our first date.
Nolan said he had noticed me at a charity dinner.
He brought me white orchids.
Asked about my bakery.
Told me he admired women who worked hard.
I had believed every word.
Avery wiped her eyes.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“Why didn't you?”
“Because he threatened to claim I'd fabricated everything because I was jealous.”
She took a trembling breath.
“And because you looked so happy.”
I closed my eyes.
I had been happy.
Not because Nolan treated me perfectly.
But because I believed someone had chosen me with certainty.
Now I understood that the relationship had begun in the shadow of his rejection.
“Harper,” Avery whispered, “I never loved him.”
I opened my eyes.
“I know.”
“I never encouraged him.”
“I know that too.”
She looked relieved.
Then I asked, “Do you still have the records?”
Her expression changed.
“Some.”
“Good.”
She stared.
“What are you thinking?”
I looked toward Roman Blackwell's card.
“Someone told me to examine our property deed.”
Avery went still.
“What?”
I slid the card across the counter.
She read the message.
Her face lost color.
“June.”
I nodded.
“Why would Roman know about her?”
Avery looked toward the front window.
Then said something that made my hands go cold.
“Because June Lane used to work for Blackwell Development.”
June was fifty-eight.
She had known my mother since college.
When Mom died of cancer eight years earlier, June became my business partner and the closest thing I had to a second mother.
She handled the bakery's finances while I ran the kitchen.
I trusted her completely.
But when I asked about the original deed, she became very quiet.
“Who told you to ask?”
“Roman Blackwell.”
Her face changed.
She sat down.
For the first time in my life, June looked frightened.
“Harper,” she whispered, “there's something your mother never wanted you to know.”
I felt the room tilt.
“What?”
June closed her eyes.
“Your bakery isn't just sitting on valuable property.”
May you like
She looked at me.
“Your mother owned the land beneath three buildings Nolan Pierce has been trying to acquire.”
