“I was too busy plowing you to go do the house,” he laughed. “Don’t worry about it. I messaged my crew and told them we’d be there after ten and to delay everything. I also messaged your brother and told him we were running late.”
“We’re really going to level the house?”
“Do you want to level the house?”
“I do but why do you?” she asked him curiously lifting up on her elbow.
“Truth?”
“Yes please.”
He took a breath. “My parents immigrated to the US right out of college. My dad is an accountant. Mom a seamstress. They became citizens. They moved here for a better life. Dad got a job working in a factory doing the payroll, but the factory shut down when I was five. There wasn’t a lot of work for him, and he ended up working in a convenience store located right in our building. It was downstairs. We lived on the floor right above the store. There were three other families in the building. He did their books, but he also worked the graveyard shift in the store to earn extra cash. With two small kids at home, mom didn’t work. We lived in this shitty neighborhood, and it could be rough, but we were happy. When I was ten, my parents were served eviction notices. Everyone in our building and three buildings on either side of us in both directions all got them. The banks foreclosed on a loan the owner of our building had taken and sold to a developer. Our building included my dad’s job. We had nowhere to go, and he was unemployed overnight. We had no family in the US to take us in. We lived in our mini van. CPS took me and my sister from my parents until they could prove they had a home for us. It took two years for Dad to get situated again in a new job and for CPS to leave us alone.”
“I’m so sorry,” she was horrified.
“The developer didn’t care about the people he was displacing. He wanted the land the building was on for a parking lot for a strip mall going in behind us.”
“Why? Why displace four families for a parking lot?”
“Twenty-seven families if you include all the buildings they took. As you know from our conversations this week, I got into flipping houses in high school with my dad. We took every penny we had between us from my odd jobs and his savings, and we started our business. I was a millionaire by my second year of college. My goal was always to improve a neighborhood, not ruin it with asphalt. I didn’t want to be like the developer who went in and razed people’s homes.”
“Then why do you want to raze this one?” she asked curiously.
“Because the company who tore my home down and made my mother cry for two years with longing for her children is McGrath. The decision to tear it down, was Trent McGrath’s decision as new CEO to the company. Bulldozing the house his son wants so desperately to raise his child in is giving me karmic vibes somehow. I want to do this for my mom. He made her cry.”
She was stunned by his quiet admission.
“Are you angry?” he asked, “I want to destroy the home you shared with him?”
She rolled him onto his back and sat astride his legs and stared down at him. “I think, this is perfect retribution to a family who tried to destroy yours. I will proudly stand beside you while you tear this house down.” She saw the smile edge on his lips before a wide one took over his entire face. “What?”
“I didn’t think it possible after all we’ve done in the last eight hours, but your words made me horny again.”
She slapped his chest as he laughed and pulled her down onto him for a hug.
“I am glad you came to find me Liesl, last week in the restaurant. I don’t know where this is going but at the very least, I am glad for both of our sakes, we both get to feel justice for the shit we have been through.”
“I bribed a billionaire for revenge. I’m badass.”
He smiled at her, “yes you are. Let’s go take our revenge.”
She was standing impatiently outside the safety zone of the house chatting with Janka and Elsie while Isaias and his team went through the house carefully one more time to make sure there was nothing inside which could cause a problem once it was demolished.
“I can’t believe he’s going to level a half million-dollar house.” Elsie was still shaking her head. “It seems wasteful.”
“On the way over, I got a text from Merlin. He said his flight had landed and he needed to talk to me. He wanted to remake another offer on the house. He felt strongly his child should be raised in a house where love was. He said I am punishing my nephew by refusing to allow him to grow in a home where his father knew only happiness and how it is unlike me to be spiteful and petty. He wants me to rethink my decisions and to sit down and have a rational, logical conversation with him and to consider not holding his mistakes against his son.”
“Wait ’til he finds out you spitefully fucked his arch nemesis.”
“Nope,” she shook her head vehemently to Janka’s words. “Did I sell my house, give him intel, and even antagonize Trent last night with his presence, purely out of spite and the need for revenge? Yup. I did. But the sex and this budding romance or whatever you want to call it, it’s all for me. He makes me feel good. He makes me laugh and he’s good to look at and I like him. I genuinely like him.” She smiled, “he’s taking me to dinner and dancing tonight.”
“He is?” Janka giggled and nudged her with her hip. “Are you the main course or the dessert? You definitely looked ravished when you two showed up at Fred’s this morning.”
“The entire buffet,” she giggled back. “I know we did a spa day yesterday, but I may need another one soon or a new fitness regime to keep up.”
“God, please tell me it wasn’t all missionary and love making?” Elsie pleaded.
“Not even once,” she grinned back.
The three women looked at the street behind them as a black town car pulled towards the driveway which was blocked off with security tape for their protection.
“Oh god,” she gave a snort, “Isaias is going to love this too much. Look who it is?”
“Is that Merlin and Sandy? Did they come straight here from the airport?” Elsie was dumbfounded.
“Yes.” She giggled delightedly. “Oh. It’s too much.”
“Should you warn Isaias?”
She looked over her shoulder at the guards who was talking into a mic attached to his collar, “pretty sure his security team is already on it.”
Janka was bouncing from one foot to the other. “This is the best day ever. Um, weren’t they were in the Caribbean, why is she not tanned? Also, who comes straight from their honeymoon to their ex-wife’s house?”
“A loser with no morals?” Elsie answered with a smug smirk as the man in question clearly overheard her insult.
“Elsie, Janka, nice to see you as always,” Merlin McGrath nodded politely ignoring the comment. “What is going on? Why are you all outside?”
Sandy reached for Merlin tucking her arm through his. “We came straight here from the airport. We really want to settle this house thing. Please, it’s important to me,” Sandy’s eyes narrowed on Liesl’s neck. “Is that a hickey or a burn?”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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