“Welcome to my family,” I said.
“So what does this mean for you?” Chloe asked. “Are you going to get involved in the day-to-day?”
I shook my head. “We’re going to sell it. I don’t even know how that works, but that’s what we’re doing. Anyone want to buy it?” I joked.
Presley was on her phone, typing in a search window. “Estimated worth is in the nine-figures range. You’re well on your way to being a billionaire, Mags.”
I made a look of disgust. “I don’t want his tainted money. Luke suggested we sell it, take the money, and put it into something good in the world to counteract all the bad mojo my grandfather and Felix have put out there.”
“I love that idea,” Rowan said.
“How do you prevent Felix from buying it?” Chloe asked.
I sat forward in alarm. “That’s a very important question. I don’t know the answer.”
“You should be able to approve any sale,” Presley said. “It’s your company.”
“Right,” I said, relaxing back again. “We’ll just have to screen anyone hard to make sure there’s no connection to that snake.”
“So what are you thinking you’ll do with the proceeds?” Rowan asked.
I shrugged. “I haven’t come up with anything yet.”
“It should be something pro-women,” Presley said, still clicking around on whatever website she’d looked up.
“Definitely,” I agreed. “I don’t really want to run a nonprofit myself, but I was thinking… Something my mother and I have in common is that we got away from a controlling man, which meant starting over. Which was really hard. I spent almost two years not knowing how I was going to rebuild my life.”
“You did it step by step,” Chloe said.
“Thanks to Dotty,” I said. “She happened to find me when I had nowhere to live and no income to pay rent. The only half plan I had at that point was selling the two designer bags I’d brought with me. So many women who get away from controlling men don’t have ridiculously expensive bags to sell or a good Samaritan finding them in their car the first day. A lot of them don’t even have a car. I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done if Dotty hadn’t taken me in.”
“What did your mom do?” Chloe asked.
“She went straight to another guy.”
“Because honestly, what do you do in that situation?” Presley said. “Unless you have a nest egg like I did.”
“Nobody has a nest egg like you did,” Chloe said.
“I had to start over, but my baggage didn’t have anything to do with a controlling asshole,” Rowan said. “It was hard enough, so when I think of what a woman must go through who’s been abused, either physically or emotionally, who has no money, who might be scared to death…”
“I’d think it takes a lot of courage just to get out of the situation,” Presley said.
I nodded. “I’m not proud to admit I had to be forced out of it.”
“But you got out of it and look at you,” Rowan said. “So what would help women in that position?”
“There are shelters they can go to,” I said. “Those are so important, but I don’t want to do the same thing. My most pressing problems were housing, income, and practical things like learning to cook and budget. I previously had never had to do any of that.”
“Just one of those could be enough to keep someone from leaving,” Chloe said.
“So what if there was a campus,” I said. “A place where women could live in their own apartment without worrying about rent at first. They get access to whatever they need. Job skills? They can learn them. Resume help? Check. Lessons in budgeting, financial goal-setting?—”
“Counseling,” Presley said.
“Absolutely,” I said. “There could be work opportunities on the campus for those who just arrive, until they’re ready to spread their wings.”
“I’m loving this,” Rowan said. “It’s a big, formerly manipulated-by-assholes girls’ survival club.”
