Page 11 of The Monster I Loved
The legal aid office was an interesting place to work, and most mornings, I really looked forward to going in. Helping the little guys win had become my passion the last few years, and it felt great to have finally found my footing. A spark of pride flickered every time I walked into work, armed with the knowledge that I hadn’t lost a case yet. When I entered the office, Olivia waved me over. “Glad you came in. We have a crisis on our hands.”
Pushing my problems to the back burner, I waited to be caught up. Olivia hesitated.
“What is it?”
“Well, John Fitzgerald and his money have finally done it. Stripped the historical landmark status from the property on Park Ave., the Starlight building.That means he can put in an offer to buy the land and demolish the building.”
I sighed.Those fucking Fitzgeralds. One just walked around murdering people, and the other pushed people out of their homes and onto the street. I’d fought so hard to save the building. It meant a lot to me. It had...memories. “How did he finally manage it?”
Olivia looked to be holding back a laugh at my silly question. “Money. Lots of it.”
“No, I mean, on what grounds did they get that status revoked?”
“Oh, destruction and economic development.”
It made sense; the building was in bad shape, but nobody had the money to fix it, other than the Fitzgeralds, but they wouldn’t do it out of the kindness of their hearts. It made sense that the pricey Fitzgerald lawyers would push for destroying the building to allow for new developments that wouldbenefitthe community. Thoughts swirled through my mind about how to stop them.
“We can file an?—”
Olivia shook her head, causing me to stop mid-sentence. “Don’t bother. We’re being forced to sit down and come to an agreement by the town. Fitzgerald is pretending to play nice, so we must too. But, mark my words, they already bought the votes; the most we can do is hope they leave any part of the building and help relocate all the tenants.”
My jaw tightened. “I’ll fight tooth and nail for that.”
Olivia looked intensely at me, causing me to squirm in my chair. “I wasn’t sure about assigning this case to you since you have...” she paused, searching for the right word, “history with them. But you’re the best we have. The building is in bad shape, and all those people will be homeless or worse. Fitzgerald knows this, but it’ll be good PR if they help rehouse the tenants. This is a case where you need to use honey, not vinegar, to win.”
I nodded but only took Olivia’s words as a suggestion. There had to be a way to get the building fixed and up to code, allowing the tenants who called it home to stay and the damn Fitzgeralds to walk away empty-handed.
I wasn’t about to help that family file one more win in their column. Hell no!
Thaddeus
As my father demanded,I was in the office bright and early waiting for him. Since I had time, I went around the space, walking past one drafting table after the next. Each contained blueprints surrounded by precision tools and empty coffee cups. Since childhood, I’d been familiar with this building, and back then I marveled at the miniature building models that lined the shelves, and that’s where I found myself today. Some things will never change.
He greeted me with two words: “You’re back.”
I stood when Father entered and observed him. He had the same serious face and build. The only difference I noticed was the gray in his hair. Shockingly, Father still wore my mother’s ring on his finger. When this man decided to put on a show, he really committed.
“You ordered, so I came.” I shrugged.
He stood before me, and I froze, thinking age had softened him and that perhaps my father would embrace me.
“You look good,” he said, scanning me from top to bottom, nodding his head with approval. He walked into his office and sat behind the desk without so much as a handshake.
I sighed, relieved he was still the same. I’d come to like that about him. My father was who he was, and he’d never changed in all his years on this earth.
“Business is doing well.” He didn’t break eye contact as he spoke. “We’ve seen great profits, and now we want to keep expanding.” Father ran his hand through his hair. “We have a problem. You’re a damn felon, and the board by-laws restrict you from serving, so now there’s nobody to take my place when I die.”
Poor you. I rolled my eyes, already annoyed he’d dragged me out of bed for this. “So, what am I doing here?”
“I need to bring you up to speed so you can take over.” Was he losing it in his old age? The man just said one thing, now...
“You must hurry, get married, and give me a grandchild. That way I can, on paper, sign over everything to that child, and you run the company by proxy through him or her until they come of age.”
Sighing heavily, I stood. “What about Lily?”
He grimaced. “You know Lily wants nothing to do with the company. She’s too busyfinding herselfor whatever at college. She has no business acumen, but you do. You always have.”
He wasn’t wrong. Lily would never set foot in the family business. She’d die before she took the reins.
