Chapter 7
Evan Vance received an eviction notice.
The timing was almost perfect.
Too perfect.
The Vances did not own the bakery building.
They leased the ground floor from an elderly landlord named Arthur Bell.
Arthur had resisted North Harbor’s purchase offer.
Then his property loan was sold to another lender.
Within weeks, he faced pressure over a technical covenant violation.
Arthur panicked.
He agreed to sell.
North Harbor became the new landlord.
The Vances were notified that their lease would not be renewed.
They had four months.
Evan called Rocco only because Claire had given him the number.
“I’m not asking you to fix it.”
Rocco listened.
“I just thought you should know.”
Rocco went to the bakery.
Maeve was asleep on two pushed-together chairs near the kitchen while her parents worked.
A folded blanket covered her.
Claire stood behind the counter reviewing the lease.
“Can they challenge it?”
“Possibly. But the lease ends in four months. Unless there’s discrimination, retaliation, fraud, or another legal defect, a new owner generally doesn’t owe them a renewal.”
Rocco hated answers that were both lawful and wrong.
Evan placed a tray on the rack harder than necessary.
“They planned this.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“I know.”
Rocco looked at him.
Evan’s eyes were red from exhaustion.
“We survived COVID. We survived my mother dying. We survived the oven breaking twice in one year.”
His voice cracked.
“Then the club cuts us off, somebody buys the building, and suddenly we’re done?”
Claire did not offer false hope.
Rocco respected her for that.
Maeve woke and wandered over.
“Mr. Wheelchair.”
Rocco looked down.
“Yes?”
“Daddy mad.”
“I noticed.”
She held up a slightly crushed cookie.
“For you.”
He accepted it.
On the drive home, Rocco made a decision.
He would not buy the bakery building for the Vances.
That would solve one family’s immediate problem while leaving Dominic’s system untouched.
Instead, he asked Claire to obtain a legal hold on any club-related redevelopment approvals until the internal investigation finished.
North Harbor could continue owning property.
It could not rely on cooperation from the Castellano Club.
Dominic called within an hour.
“You froze the redevelopment.”
“Yes.”
“You have no authority over North Harbor.”
“I have authority over my club.”
“You’re destroying millions in value because you feel guilty about a little girl.”
Rocco looked at Maeve’s coin on his desk.
“No.”
His voice became quiet.
“I’m slowing down a deal because the people pushing it refuse to show me how they built it.”
May you like
Dominic hung up.
The next day, Grace discovered he had deleted months of club emails shortly before his suspension.
