He Chose Mistress, I Chose Empire novel · Chapter 6 of 32
Chapter 6: Ninety Days
"I can't tell you what's in it," I said.
"You own the building."
"I own the building. You rent the unit. Nobody opens it but the person with the key."
Shayla looked at the receipt in her hand.
"He has the key," she said. "He said it was business. He said I didn't need to worry about it."
"Then you should ask him what you're paying for."
She put her sunglasses back on.
"He chose me," she said again, but not as loud.
The door chimed behind her.
The retired couple visibly relaxed.
Two days later the city sent a letter.
Wilma read it first, then handed it to me without a word.
The Metro Council would consider taking the Kitt lot by eminent domain.
For a public riverwalk. Adjacent to Talmadge Landing.
The hearing was in eight days.
"They can take it?" one of my movers asked.
"They can take it if they say the public needs it more than we do," Wilma said. "And pay us what they say it's worth."
"Which is what?"
"Less than it's worth."
I looked back down at the letter.
The riverwalk ran exactly through our loading bays and our gravel lot, and nowhere else.
Brantley had asked me four times to sell this lot.
Now he'd stopped asking.
The council chamber was cold and paneled in dark wood.
Brantley came with a lawyer, two investors and a rendering on an easel.
The tower glowed in it. Thirty-eight floors of blue glass. Little drawn people walked a riverwalk where my warehouse stood.
He didn't look at me once.
When his turn came, he spoke for twelve minutes and never used a note.
"Nashville deserves a riverfront the whole city can walk," he said. "Right now there's a chain-link fence and an old warehouse with two trucks in it."
"Six," I said, from my seat.
The chair tapped her gavel at me.
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