Chapter 33
Lumi
I just stood there, completely frozen, my mind going totally blank as I looked from Victoria’s bandage to her cane.
My face burned with a mix of shock and pure embarrassnt. I didn’t want to deal with this, and I definitely didn’t want to stand in a parking lot and get scread at by Ren’s fiancé.
I looked over at Ren, whose face was completely dark, and took a small step back.
"I’m going to go inside and start checking the lower offices," I told him, keeping my voice as quiet and steady as I could. "You should handle this."
I didn’t wait for him to answer or for Victoria to say another word. I turned around, walked quickly up the concrete steps, and pushed open the heavy glass doors of the lobby.
The mont the doors closed behind , the cold, dusty air of the empty building hit my face.
I leaned my back against the wall and let out a long breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
My heart was thumping hard against my ribs, and that cold knot was right back in my stomach.
Focus, Lumi, I told myself, rubbing my forehead. You ca here to work. Think about your son. Do not think about them.
I walked into one of the empty side offices, sat down on a dusty window sill, and pulled out my phone.
Since going to a crowded market felt completely exhausting right now, I decided it was easier to just order all our cleaning supplies online.
I spent the next twenty minutes scrolling through a website, adding heavy-duty trash bags, masks, and lightbulbs to a virtual cart, forcing my mind to stay on the task.
Outside, I could hear the faint, muffled sound of Victoria’s sharp voice shouting, followed by the low rumble of Ren’s deep voice. A few minutes later, the loud screech of car tires echoed through the glass.
The parking lot went completely quiet.
I waited for Ren to walk through the doors, but ten minutes passed, and then fifteen, and the building stayed completely silent. I stayed right where I was, staring at my phone, trying to pretend I wasn’t listening for his footsteps.
Maybe he left with her. That was the best thing to do actually.
Suddenly, the heavy rumble of a big engine pulling into the lot broke the quiet. It didn’t sound like a sports car this ti. It sounded like a large van.
I stood up, tucked my phone into my pocket, and walked back out toward the main lobby doors to see what was happening.
Ren was standing by the front gate, but he wasn’t alone. Two n in work clothes were unloading heavy tal toolboxes from the back of a white van, and a woman holding a large leather folder was talking directly to him, pointing up at the building’s roof.
I pushed the glass door open and stepped out onto the pavent. "Ren? What’s going on?"
Ren turned around to look at . His jaw was still tight from whatever had just happened with Victoria, but his expression softened the mont he saw .
"This is Sarah," Ren said, gesturing to the woman with the folder. "She’s a comrcial architect. And these guys are the electrical team."
My mouth parted slightly in total surprise. I looked from him to the work van, completely caught off guard. "But... I didn’t call anyone yet. I was still making the online list."
"I called them last night," Ren said, taking a couple of slow steps toward . "I told you, Lumi. You can’t do this completely alone. While you handle the paperwork, they are going to check the roof repairs and test the main power grid. We need to know exactly what we’re dealing with."
I stared up at him, completely speechless.
Looking at his tired eyes, his ssy morning beard, and the fact that he had spent his night organizing a whole crew just to make things easier for , sothing inside my chest completely lted. My heart did that stupid, fast flutter again, but this ti, it felt much heavier.
I was falling for him. I knew it right then, and it absolutely terrified . Despite the fiancé, despite the fact that he was Neve’s little brother, he was doing everything in his power to be the anchor I needed.
"Thank you," I said softly, my voice a little uneven.
Ren just gave a slow, quiet nod, his dark eyes fixed on mine.
"Let’s get to work, Lumi," he said.
The team gets straight to work, and the building instantly cos alive with the sound of drilling and heavy footsteps.
The next few hours passed in a complete blur.
Sarah, the architect, walked through every single floor with us, taking notes on the cracked walls and the broken elevator shaft.
The electrical team was down in the basent, flipping switches and tracking the dead wiring.
Through it all, Ren never left my side. Every ti we had to climb over broken concrete or walk through a dark hallway where the windows were boarded up, his hand was right there, lightly touching the small of my back or holding my elbow to steady .
He didn’t say anything, and I didn’t either, but the warmth of his hand felt like the only real thing in the entire dusty building.
By 2:00 PM, the crew wrapped up their initial checks and headed out, promising to email over the full blueprints and cost estimates by tomorrow morning.
Once the white van pulled out of the parking lot, the building fell back into a heavy silence.
I stood in the center of the dusty lobby, looking down at my notebook which was now completely filled with notes. My feet were throbbing, and my throat felt dry from all the dust in the air.
"You did really well today," Ren’s deep voice rumbled beside .
I looked up at him. He had a smudge of dark soot across his jaw from helping the electricians in the basent, and his hair was a bit ssy. He looked completely exhausted, but his dark eyes were fixed on with a quiet sort of pride.
"I couldn’t have done any of this without you," I admitted honestly, closing my notebook. "Seriously, Ren. Thank you for calling them."
He looked down at for a long mont. His jaw tightened slightly, and for a second, I thought he was going to bring up Victoria or the fact that he had to leave again. But instead, he just reached into his pocket and pulled out his car keys.
"Let’s get out of here," he said quietly. "You need to eat sothing, and we need to approve that online order for the cleaning supplies."
We walked out to the parking lot together. I unlocked my new SUV, a small feeling of pride hitting as I looked at it, and then turned to Ren.
"Will you follow back to the apartnt?" I asked.
He nodded, waiting until I safely climbed into the driver’s seat before he walked over to his own car.
The drive back was quick. When we got up to Neve’s apartnt, I imdiately went to the kitchen and poured us both two large glasses of ice water. We drank in silence, the cool liquid clearing the dust from my throat.
I sat down at the dining table and opened my laptop, pulling up the online cart with all the heavy-duty trash bags and masks. Ren pulled up a chair right next to , leaning in close so he could look at the screen.
He was so close that his broad shoulder was pressed right against mine, the scent of leather and faint sweat wrapping around .
"Add two more boxes of the rubber gloves," Ren muttered, his finger pointing at the screen. "The basent has a lot of sharp tal. You’ll ruin your hands if you don’t use the thick ones."
"Okay," I whispered, my fingers clicking the mouse.
My heart was doing that annoying, fast thumping again. We were supposed to be looking at trash bags, but all I could focus on was the steady rhythm of his breathing right next to my ear.
Just as I clicked the final paynt button to send the supplies to the apartnt, Ren’s phone suddenly started buzzing loudly against the wooden table.
We both froze.
I glanced down. The screen was lighting up with a picture of Victoria, her na flashing in bold letters across the glass.
The entire mood in the room instantly died.
Ren stared at the phone, his face turning completely hard and unreadable. He didn’t pick it up. He just let it buzz and vibrate against the table until the screen finally went dark.
But a second later, it started buzzing again.
I swallowed the hard lump in my throat and slowly stood up from the table, closing my laptop.
"You should answer that," I said, my voice sounding flat and hollow even to myself. "I’m going to go take a shower and change."
I turned around to walk toward the hallway, but before I could take two steps, Ren’s large hand shot out and caught my wrist, stopping in my tracks.
"Lumi, wait," he pleaded, his voice rough and tight.
I froze, my back still turned to him. His hand around my wrist was incredibly warm, and his grip was firm but gentle, like he was terrified I would run away if he let go.
Behind us, his phone kept buzzing angrily on the wooden table, the vibrating noise cutting through the quiet room over and over again.
"Ren, let go," I said quietly, keeping my eyes fixed on the hallway floor. "Your phone is ringing."
He didn’t let go right away. Instead, he pulled gently on my wrist, forcing to turn around and face him. I looked up, and the hard mask he usually wore was completely gone. He looked completely stressed out.
"I’ll let you go. But first, I want to apologize." he rumbled, his deep voice sounding rough and tight. "I am so sorry about Victoria. I’m sorry about the way she spoke to you at the mall, and the way she acted this morning. She had no right to talk to you like that."
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