Page 10 of The Runaway Billionaire's Inconvenient Baby
“I don’t care!” I slam my fists on my thighs in frustration.
Mayor Briggs is a good friend, a great man, and a guy who’s known me since I was born. None of those things stop him from being an idiot sometimes, though.
The second Willow told me the news about the billionaire prick, I marched straight to the town offices with her and demanded a meeting.
All the staff and admins know me well, so they let us straight in to see Briggs. I don’t think they realized quite how upset I was going to be.
Would our mayor really sell us out to some rich guy who doesn’t care about us or about our community? To some guy who sees us as an annoyance on his island. “You know, he’s planning to evict us all.”
Briggs’s silence says it all and my stomach flips, blood rushing cold through my chest.
“You knew?” I choke. “You knew, and you’re letting him do whatever he wants? You’re letting him take everything?”
“I’m simply hearing what he has to say, Billie,” says Briggs with a sigh. “Nothing more. Nothing is certain yet. Besides, when a very wealthy man asks to meet with you, you don’t say no.”
“Yes, you do!” I yell. “You make a stand! You protect what’s yours. You don’t roll over because some money is waved in your face. I can’t believe you would do this to us.”
“Nothing is certain yet,” he repeats, trying to calm me down.
But it won’t work. I refuse to be consoled about this. “I’m not having some rich guy come into my town and steal away everyone’s livelihood. People who’ve lived here, worked here their whole lives — you want them to lose that like it was nothing?”
“Of course not, Billie.” Briggs sighs again, his bald head shining with sweat. No doubt our being here is putting him under stress.
Willow puts her hand on my shoulder in some subtle attempt to calm me down.
It won’t work.
“She’s right,” says Willow, always on my side. At least I can rely on someone, always. “What does this guy want with Havenridge so bad that he wants us all gone?”
“The land,” says Briggs. “He wanted to talk about the land.”
“Development? No way. Can you Imagine this place full of condos and rich guys?” I shake my head, the vision too terrible tobear. “Havenridge is our home. Everyone we know and everyone we love is here. And you would spit that right back in our faces. Let him trample all over us like we were dirt?”
“Billie,” says Briggs firmly. “I know that asking you to calm down will have no effect. It might even make you angrier…”
“It will,” I huff.
“But I need you to think about this from other points of view. Can you do that?”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“Don’t act like a child then.”
Willow tenses beside me, and I see her lean forward like she’s ready to restrain me if I take a swing at Briggs. Which I won’t. I might be furious, but I’m more likely to burst into tears than fight.
Briggs continues, “I think your passion might be getting in the way of what’s really happening here.”
“What is really happening here? If it’s not him stealing, then what? What’s really happening here, other than all the residents of Havenridge losing their homes and their livelihoods? Some rich asshole stealing our lives for his holiday home and rich friends? Is that the kind of place you want Havenridge to be?”
Briggs wavers at my outburst. He’s a good mayor, but I guess he’s also the kind of person who would sell out for the right amount of cash. It’s almost funny. It’s not the kind of person I ever took him for.
But we’ve been going round and round in circles about this for a while now, and neither of us is budging on our stance.
“No,” he says at last. “Of course, it’s not.”
“You love this town as much as we do, don’t you?”
He fixes us both with a stern look. “You know I do.”
