She felt her phone buzz in her briefcase and pulled it out, her heart in her throat, knowing that it wouldn’t be Baxter, but a small part of her hoped that she would see his name on the screen.

  “Good luck, sis!” The message from Charlotte read, followed by three heart emojis. Lauren looked to the spectator section of the crowded council chambers and saw her sister and Logan smiling and waving at her. She raised her hand in acknowledgment, then put her phone on silent and slid it back into her bag.

  As the mayor started reading her opening remarks, the chamber doors slammed open and a man in a dark blue suit with a silk pocket square stepped into the room. He was flanked by Thomas and Barry, Baxter’s executives.

  Lauren recognized the man from all of her background research, Baxter Caldwell, Senior had just stormed the chamber. The trio excused themselves as they shimmied into the consultant’s section. Barry and Thomas refused to make eye contact with Lauren as she stood from her seat to let them by.

  “The first item on the agenda,” Mayor Smythe looked at her notes over her bifocal glasses, “the Caldwell Creek project.”

  Lauren shifted in her seat, a sinking feeling growing in her gut. The mayor continued reading, “Caldwell International has applied for an exemption to the density limits set out in the Chance Rapids’ official plan.”

  “No,” Lauren whispered under her breath.

  The changes to the Caldwell plan should have been submitted prior to the afternoon meeting. The letter that Baxter had written to the council had revoked their application for the exemption. Her heart started to pound. Nothing had changed. Baxter had lied to her and now he wasn’t even here to face her. Her hands clenched into fists, crinkling her notes. She suddenly felt like she was naked in front of a stadium full of people. She had expected to stand up and congratulate Caldwell on their changes to the plan and to tell the mayor that the updated plan had her organization’s full support.

  She was an experienced solicitor, one who had just made a rookie mistake. She was unprepared. She folded her useless notes and slipped them into her briefcase. She rubbed her hands together as she listened as the mayor presented the god-awful development plan to the town council.

  Mayor Smythe looked to the section of consultants, her eyebrows raised over her glasses. “Is Mr. Caldwell present?” she asked.

  “Mayor Smythe,” Baxter Caldwell, Senior stood up. “I am Baxter Caldwell, Senior.”

  “Very well,” Shirley Smythe nodded. “Mr. Caldwell, these plans appear to be several years old.”

  “That’s correct,” his voice boomed. “I have gone back to the original plans.”

  “So, this isn’t an error?” The mayor flipped through the pages of architectural drawings.

  “No, ma’am. We are sticking with our original request for exemption.”

  Lauren stood up and smoothed her hands down her black shift dress, a hand me down from Charlotte. “Mayor Smythe, in light of the changes to the application, I would like to request an extension to the deadline in order to update my recommendations to the council.”

  “That seems like a reasonable request,” Mayor Smythe nodded.

  Baxter Caldwell, Sr. snickered lightly. “With all due respect, Mayor Smythe. Your consultants have had three years to prepare for this meeting. Every day that you postpone making the exemptions, costs Caldwell International thousands of dollars. If this isn’t addressed today, I’ll have no choice but to move forward with legal action of my own to address these costs.”

  Mayor Smythe removed her glasses. “With all due respect Mr. Caldwell, these plans have been amended countless times in the last three years. The recommendations the council has received are based on the most current version.”

  Baxter Caldwell, Senior stepped forward toward the mayor. “Well, then it looks like you’re going to have to go back to the original report. We can wait.”

  Lauren couldn’t believe what was happening. The application she had been dealing with was terrible. The original was a monstrosity.

  Councilman Larry Lawrence stood up. “Mr. Caldwell is right. We’ve been sitting on this for years. We have the original report and I for one would like to get this over with.” Larry shot his eyes at Baxter Caldwell, Sr. and Lauren caught the old man nod at him in approval. It looked like the serene small-town Lauren had grown to love had just stepped into the big leagues, the kind with corruption.

  “Objection,” Lauren shouted, her courtroom instincts taking over.

  “Miss Bunkman, this is a council meeting, not a courtroom.” Mayor Smythe said.

  Lauren felt ridiculous but stepped forward to stand beside Caldwell Senior. “Mayor Smythe. This is completely unorthodox.”

  “I agree with Larry.” Councilman Smit, a wiry old man stood up. “Let’s get on with it.”

  “I have the old report here.” Barry handed out bound copies of the three-year-old report to the mayor and the council members. The bloodsucking executives were ready for this scumbag move.

  The room started to go in and out of focus. This couldn’t be happening. “Mayor Smythe. You can’t permit this.”

  The mayor nodded at Lauren. “Mr. Caldwell, If you’d like to return to your original application, you will need to go through the proper channels.”

  “Actually,” Larry Lawrence pulled out a copy of the official plan. “If all of us are in agreement…” he gestured to his fellow councilmen. “We can vote on this today.”

  Lauren stepped back. It was true, but she never expected it to happen. Everyone in town was against the proposal. She stared at the four men on council, they all looked nervous and sweaty, but there was something not quite right, something she couldn’t put her finger on, and then she noticed the glint of gold on each of their wrists. They were all wearing what looked like brand-new Rolex watches.

  “All council members in favor of reviewing the original development plans today, say ‘aye’.” Larry glanced sideways at his cronies.

  It didn’t surprise Lauren when all four of the men stood. Mayor Smythe looked to her council, her eyes wide. She called her assistant over and covered up the microphone while the two of them flipped through the council procedural book.

  She removed her hand from the microphone and her audible sigh escaped through the speakers. “Mr. Caldwell, with a 4-1 vote, we will accept the changes to your application.” The crowd gasped. Mayor Smythe was all business as she read through the specifics of the horrible development plan. She flipped through the old report that had been prepared years earlier, before Lauren was even hired to oppose the development, hoping to find some solid arguments to present to the council.

  “Caldwell International is requesting an exemption to the official plan to build a mixed-use, commercial-residential tower and ski village adjacent to Sugar Peaks. The current regulations allow for three-story commercial hotels. The exemption to the plan would permit seven thousand units to be built with a maximum building height of forty stories…” Mayor Smythe shook her head but continued. “The report prepared by the consultants three years ago recommended that the request for exemption be denied based on population density, impacts on the local economy, and the encroachment of the village onto the conservation land.” She looked up. “Miss Bunkman, is there anything that you would like to add?”

  Lauren took a deep breath. “Mayor Smythe, our recommendation to the council was to reject a plan that was half the size. The impacts of this development will be so much worse than anything we could have ever imagined. I implore members of the council to reject the application.” Lauren’s voice was stoic, but as she watched the council members subtly shaking their heads, she knew that even if she proved that Caldwell was going to club baby seals and fill the lake with radioactive sludge, he had given them enough money to look the other way.

  “Thank you, Miss Bunkman.”

  Lauren took her seat and felt like her soul had been ripped from her body. In the course of two days, she had lost the man she loved and lost the fight to save her town.

  “I’m going to call a recess so that the councillors can review the reports relevant to this application,” the mayor stated.

  There was a frustrated sigh amongst the spectators as everyone started to pull on coats and stand to stretch. Mr. Caldwell and his executives remained seated.

  “If you don’t mind, Mayor Smythe, the council is prepared to vote now,” Larry shouted over the din of the shuffling in the room.

  Lauren knew that the mayor’s hands were tied with bureaucratic red tape. She had never felt so hopeless in her life. All of that work, all of those late nights, after everything she had done, this despicable man and his pocketbook were going to ruin Chance Rapids.

  Mayor cleared her throat and tapped on the microphone. “Excuse me, everyone. The council would like to vote on the exemption. All in favor of providing an exemption to the density to permit the construction of Caldwell Creek say…

  “Stop.”

  Everyone in the room turned to face the double doors. Lauren stood on her toes to try and see over the crowd of spectators in the room. There were three uniformed police officers as well as at least five men in suits that looked like some kind of special agents.

  “Mr. Caldwell, you’re under arrest.” The tall dark-haired man leading the group of officers strode confidently through the room.

  As the policemen made their way through the stunned crowd, Mr. Caldwell remained glued to his seat. “What’s the charge?” His arms were crossed, and he casually tilted his wrist to look at his watch.

  “Racketeering,” one of the men in suits stepped forward and started reading him his rights.

  Lauren gasped. These were federal agents, and racketeering was a very serious charge. The color drained from Mr. Caldwell’s face as two of the uniformed officers helped him to his feet and placed his hands in cuffs. “You have no proof.” Barry and Thomas were also handcuffed, and it felt like a movie that had gone into slow motion as the three of them were led from the municipal chambers.

  The murmurs of the crowd grew louder as Mr. Caldwell’s shouting became irate. “You can’t do this to me.”

  Lauren could no longer see the trio of executives, but she could hear Mr. Caldwell’s yelling from the hallway.

  “Holy fuck,” Charlotte rushed over to where Lauren was standing. “What just happened?”

  “It looks like Mr. Caldwell just bought his last council.” Lauren shook her head.

  “What happens now?” Charlotte whispered.

  “I don’t know. I don’t think that there’s a protocol for this kind of thing.”

  “Could everyone please be seated,” Mayor Smythe said into the microphone. For someone whose council chambers had just been stormed by the police, she remained surprisingly calm. “We will resume the vote.” Her voice was flat, and her hands were folded on the table in front of her. “Unless, in light of the current circumstances, the council would like some time to review the proposal.” She looked to the council members, who all looked like they were about to vomit. “Mr. Lawrence?” she prodded.

  “Actually, we would like some more time to review that report.” His face was so red, Lauren wouldn’t have been surprised if he had keeled over from a heart attack.

  “I thought so,” Mayor Smythe said. And like nothing ever happened, she moved onto the next order of business on the agenda.

  Lauren slipped out of the council chambers and rested on one of the hard wooden benches in the hallway. She didn’t know what would happen next, with the head of the corporation under arrest there was no way that the development would move forward.

  Logan and Charlotte appeared in the hallway and rushed to sit with Lauren. “Holy shit,” Logan said. “Can you believe that just happened?”

  “This day has been insane,” Lauren whispered. “I have to get out of here.”

  “Want to go for lunch?” Charlotte asked.

  “I can’t eat anything,” Lauren pressed into the bench to push herself to her feet. The emotion and drama of the meeting had finally caught up with her and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to keep any food down.

  “I’ll go get the car,” Logan said. He patted Lauren on the shoulder, leaving her in the empty hallway with her sister.

  As the door closed behind Logan, Lauren’s face crumbled. She sat back down on the bench, her face in her hands. Charlotte sat down and pulled her in close. “What’s wrong?” Charlotte asked. “This is a good thing, isn’t it?”

  Lauren didn’t know where to start. “Oh, Charlotte. How did everything go so wrong?”

  “Wrong?” Charlotte rubbed Lauren’s back.

  “I fucked everything up.” She managed to get the words out and chased them with a sob.

  “No, I fucked everything up.” A deep voice echoed in the hallway. Lauren paused, her face still in her hands.

  “What did you do, Baxter?” Charlotte pulled Lauren in closer to her. Lauren parted her fingers, the fluorescent light from the hallway filtering in through her fingers and then she let herself look up at him.

  Baxter Caldwell, Junior was standing at the end of the hallway, his hiking boots covered in snow. He strode down the corridor, “I broke a promise to your sister,” he said. He knelt down on the floor in front of Lauren and wiped away her tears. “I promised you that I would never make you cry.” He took Lauren’s hands in his. Charlotte squeezed her shoulders. “I’m going to leave you two alone. Are you okay?” she whispered. Lauren sniffed and nodded.

  “I’m sorry, Lauren.” Baxter squeezed her hands. “Can you forgive me?”

  Lauren looked into his blue eyes and squeezed his hands back. “No,” she whispered.

  She stood up and followed her sister’s path out of the hallway and down the front stairs of the town office.

  “Wait, Lauren.” Baxter burst out of the building behind her. “Can we talk?”

  Lauren broke into a light jog, but the boots she had borrowed from Charlotte didn’t provide much grip and she ended up doing a high-speed penguin waddle through the snow on the sidewalk. Baxter easily caught up with her. “Lauren.” He was breathing heavily and held onto her bare arm. “Is there somewhere we can go and talk? I don’t want to leave things the way that we did. You have to admit, you kind of dropped a bomb on me.”

  “On you?” Lauren pulled her arm from his grip. “What do you call that?” she pointed to the town hall. “You changed the plans. You lied to me. Was this your plan? To catch me off guard, get me into bed, and then do the old bait and switch with the development plans?” The blood coursing through Lauren’s veins was boiling, but her teeth were chattering.

  “You’re freezing.”

  “I-I-I’m not,” she chattered.

  “Come with me, somewhere warm.”

  “N-n-no. You had your chance to talk and you ran.”

  Baxter sighed. He pulled off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. “I know. I regret that. But come on, you just told me I was a dad. I think that I was in shock. But now I’m back, and I want to talk to you about, well, everything.”

  “Why did you send your father in to do your dirty work?”

  “Ahh,” Baxter smiled.

  Lauren looked away, knowing that his smile had a certain way of melting her icy resolve. Baxter held up his hands in front of her. “Do you see any handcuffs?”

  Lauren squinted her eyes at him. “No.”

  “My dad took over the project. I couldn’t let him ruin your town. Our town.” He reached out to hold both of Lauren’s hands, rubbing his thumb on the back as she trembled in the warmth of his grip. “Our daughter’s town,” he whispered.

  “You were the whistleblower?”

  “I found out my father paid off the council here, and I went back to the head office and did some digging, and that wasn’t the worst of it. My dad is a very dirty man.”

  “But what’s going to happen to you?” Lauren asked.

  “I don’t want that legacy.” He slid his hands from hers to cup her cheeks. “All I want is you, and our daughter.” Lauren held onto his wrists and while the tears streamed silently down her face. “Things have become so clear to me, Lauren.”

  “Are you sure?” she whispered.

  “I’ve had plenty of time to think about it, and I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.” He leaned in and kissed Lauren’s lips gently. He pulled back and Lauren kept her eyes closed, waiting to feel the warmth of his face against hers again. When it was taking too long, she opened her eyes and saw him kneeling down on the sidewalk in front of her. Her hands were still in his.

  “Lauren Bunkman, will you marry me?”

  Lauren shivered, but this time it wasn’t from the cold. Her tears started flowing again as she kept nodding. “Yes, Baxter, I will marry you.”

  Baxter pulled a black velvet box from his pocket and slid a giant emerald cut ring onto her finger. The stone sparkled on Lauren’s finger. Never in a million years had she envisioned a ring on her finger, but this one felt right.

  He stood and hugged her in tightly. “I’m Brock now, baby.” A whoosh of adrenaline coursed through Lauren’s body in response to hearing that name. “Brock, I will marry you.” She smiled and then kissed him. She didn’t know how long they stood in the center of town, amongst the frosty windows of the downtown shops and the freshly cut greenery of the Christmas wreaths that hung from the iron lamp posts and she didn’t care.

  “Oh, there’s one more thing,” Brock said. He pulled out a matching velvet box and handed it to Lauren.

  “What’s this?”

  “I was going to get her a teddy bear, but even I know that she’s too old for that.”

  Lauren cried out as she opened the box and saw a matching stone to hers on a simple white gold chain. “I hope that she says yes too.” This time Brock’s eyes were the ones brimming with tears.

  Lauren handed the box back to him. “Let’s go get her. Our daughter. And you can ask her yourself.” She slipped her hand into his and he held hers tightly as the two of them walked down Main Street of Chance Rapids, the snow lightly falling around them. “It looks like I need to buy you another sweater,” he whispered in her ear. “I love you, Lauren.”