Page 45 of A Cobbled Conspiracy

My phone buzzed insistently, cutting through my contented thoughts. I reached into a jacket pocket, pulling it out. Sarah’s name flashed on the screen, then immediately started buzzing again before I could answer.

“Seems urgent,” I said, accepting the call as we reached the car.

“Leo!” Sarah’s voice was sharp with a mixture of excitement and distress. “Have you heard what’s happened? Did you know about it?”

“Know about what?” I asked.

“They’ve withdrawn their offers on almost everything. Gate’s Hardware, Tang’s Tea House, Wilson’s Bakery, your shop, Vintage Vogue—all of it. Just… gone. Like they suddenly lost interest in the entire district.”

I stared at Marcus through the windshield, not quite processing what I was hearing. “Vertex gave up?”

“On everything except the pharmacy,” Sarah said. “Paula folded right before they withdrew the other offers. They’ve called for immediate demolition of the pharmacy. Like they’re furious about losing everything else and taking it out on the one property they can still get.”

“When did this happen?” My voice sounded distant to my own ears, something cold and terrible beginning to spread through my chest.

“The withdrawal notices were filed this morning. Paula got the increased offer yesterday, along with a demand for immediate closure. They want her out by end of this week so demolition can start Monday.”

I felt ice-cold dread settle in my stomach, mixing sickeningly with the warm joy I’d been feeling moments before. The timing was too convenient, too surgical. Vertex wouldn’t just randomly abandon acquisition campaigns worth millions of dollars.

“Sarah,” I said slowly, “has anyone figured out why they suddenly lost interest in the rest of the district?”

“Nobody knows anything,” she said with a shrug in her voice. “It’s like they just… decided to cut their losses.”

But I was starting to have a very clear idea of what might have happened. The evasive conversations between Dominic and Blake. Their mysterious confidence about having “news to share soon.” Their carefully neutral reactions to community concerns at the town hall meeting.

Through our bond, I could feel Dominic’s satisfaction, that same poignant contentment that had been radiating from him for days. I’d thought it was happiness about our relationship, about being free and building our life together.

Now I wondered if it was something else entirely.

“Where’s Paula now?”

“At the pharmacy, trying to pack up a century of her family’s work,” Sarah said. “Adelaide’s with her, but… Paula looks broken. Like she’s given up completely.”

The image of Paula—exhausted and defeated at the town hall meeting, now having to dismantle her family’s legacy in less than a week—made my chest tighten with fury. She was suffering, her life’s work was being destroyed, while I’d been celebrating medical appointments and planning romantic revelations.

“I have to go,” I told Sarah, ending the call with shaking hands.

“Leo?” Penny was studying my expression with growing concern. “What’s wrong?”

I didn’t answer, just slid into the back seat of the car where Marcus was already holding the door. “Blake’s penthouse,” I said, my voice hollow. “Now.”

The car ride felt endless, my anger crystallizing into bitter certainty with each passing block. Penny sat beside me in tense silence, occasionally shooting worried glances in my directionbut wisely not pressing for details. The ultrasound photo in my pocket felt like a mockery now—evidence of the future I’d been planning with someone who might have been playing a completely different game.

By the time we reached Blake’s building, my suspicions had hardened into accusations I was ready to voice.

When Penny and I entered the penthouse, I found Dominic and Blake in the living room, documents spread across the coffee table as if they were conducting business as usual. They looked up as we entered, and I could see they’d been discussing something serious.

“Leo,” Dominic said, immediately standing and moving toward me with a smile. “You’re back early. How did the appointment?—”

“Vertex withdrew their offers,” I said without preamble. “On everything except the pharmacy.”

Blake and Dominic exchanged one of their meaningful looks, and I felt my patience snap entirely.

“Don’t,” I said sharply. “Don’t you dare look at each other like that while I’m standing here demanding answers. What did you do?”

“Leo,” Blake said carefully, “perhaps you should sit down?—”

“I don’t want to sit down. I want to know what you two did to make Vertex suddenly lose interest in an acquisition campaign worth millions of dollars.”