Page 240 of The Blairville Legacies

I remained silent.

If she only knew it was about Adrian DeLoughrey… At least that had been the case until I'd googled them on the internet and my breath had been taken away.

“Let me show you something,” I said, pulling the slim laptop out of my backpack without wrecking my camera.

“This family basically ownshalf the city...”

Bayla listened and looked at my screen as I turned the laptop toward her and slid to her side.

“There's the DeLoughrey Science Center, both towers; the bank, and office building too.” I showed her the two skyscrapers that jutted out of Blairville as if they didn't belong, and then the two other smaller buildings. “But also, theentire mall. Or here...” I pointed to a big part of the island,Fogs Forest, which stretched out far and wide on the map. “There are supposed to be old nineteenth-century mansions there that they want to renovate and restore.”

Bay took a closer look at the map.

“Okay, they're rich and have a lot of influence over the city...” she confirmed, nodding.

“I did some more research and came across lots of articles aboutbusinesses in Blairville.”

I opened the internet. The benefit of getting free Wi-Fi in a diner.

“The DeLoughreys seem to have a huge wine empire.”

“Wine...” Bayla said, unimpressed.

I opened another tab.

“But what's much more interesting is this.”

Bayla looked intently at the screen.

“The DeLoughreys are said to be in a nearly twenty-year business dispute with the Copelands and the Blairs, not really over individual buildings, but over the territories of thewhole island.” I lowered my voice as Grace cleared the table two tables away. “Maybe that's why Julie and Grace have something against the Copelands and why they don't like the DeLoughreys.”

I looked at Bay, who was focusing on my laptop.

She seemed much more interested than a few minutes ago.

“I have a feeling there's more to it thanjust a business dispute,” Bay whispered conspiratorially, looking at me.

“I feel the same way. Because this dispute has been going on for quite a long time. And also, that they've divided the whole island intothree territories...”

I took the laptop and opened a map of the city that I had created myself and edited with markers.

“Look, here. According to what I found; these are the territories. Here we have the entire center of the city up to the abandoned amusement park, the harbor and a small part of the forest near the sea. This area belongs to the Blairs.”

I circled the orange outline without touching my laptop.

“When did you do all this?” Bay interrupted me.

“Wednesday night. I was interested,okay?” I continued. “Look, here... All these woods around the university, this housing project by this lake, and the whole coastline here are Copeland territory.”

I had marked the area in green.

“What's left is this huge forest with the smaller lake.Just a forest.That's the funny thing. No settlement, no industry, just a forest.”

Bayla zoomed in and did the same thing I'd been trying to do, which was to find a house, but there wasn't one. At least not on the satellite map.

“You can look for ages. But I had the same thought. If they own an area and go to university here, then theymustlive somewhere in town.”

Bayla kept looking anyway.