Chapter 16 - The Caldwell Collapse
While I drafted plans for the sanctuary, the fallout from the wedding disaster continued to dismantle Nora’s family.
Her father’s car dealership, already drowning under Richard Vance’s commercial loan, collapsed completely when Richard, bitter and vengeful after his own financial ruins, called the note due without mercy. The Caldwells lost their showroom, their inventory was seized by the bank, and Nora’s parents were forced to downsize into a cramped two-bedroom apartment thirty miles outside Charlotte.
Brett and Tyler, the two brothers who had threatened me on the porch, were dismissed from their construction jobs after videos of their altercation with Drew surfaced online, cementing their reputations as aggressive, unemployable liabilities.
One evening, Drew came over to the lake house carrying a large pizza box and a six-pack of cider.
“You’ll never guess who I ran into at the grocery store in Asheville,” Drew said, tossing the keys on the counter.
“Who?”
“Tyler Caldwell,” Drew said with a laugh. “He was stocking shelves in the frozen food aisle. When he saw me, he literally dropped a box of frozen waffles and ran into the back storage room.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle, shaking my head as I opened two bottles of cider.
“And Nora?” I asked. It was the first time I had spoken her name in three weeks.
Drew’s face softened, the humor fading into quiet sincerity. “Maya’s paralegal checked on her. She moved to Florida. Working under an alias as a front-desk coordinator for some cheap timeshare company. Her social media empire is dead. No one in North Carolina event planning will even touch her resume.”
I took a sip of the cider, feeling the cool, crisp apple taste against my tongue.
“I hope she finds help,” I said quietly.
Drew looked at me in disbelief. “After what she did to you? You hope she finds help?”
May you like
“Not for her sake,” I replied, looking out over the moonlit water. “For mine. Hating her takes energy, Drew. And I don’t have room in my life for her anymore. Not even my hatred.”
***