“Thanks, Mel,” April said.
“No problem. Good luck with Vicki.”
April hung up and stared at her phone. Mel was right. If April wanted to get to the bottom of this, she had to go straight to the source.
April dialed Vicki’s number and paced next to the couch, waiting for Vicki to pick up. It seemed to take an eternity. She was about to lose her nerve when Vicki finally answered.
“April?” Vicki said.
April didn’t give her a chance to say hello. “Mel told me about King Street. What the hell is going on, Victoria?”
There was silence at the end of the line.
“Let me show you,” Vicki finally said. “Meet me at the north end of King Street tomorrow morning.”
“I’m not waiting until tomorrow,” April said. “I want to know now.”
“All right. Meet me on King Street in an hour?”
By the time April arrived on King Street, the sun had set. She was early, but Vicki was already there, standing under a streetlight waiting for her.
April’s heart skipped a beat. That part of her that went weak every time she laid eyes on Vicki was still there, no matter how hard April tried to ignore it.
Spotting April, Vicki flashed her that devastatingly sexy smile. “Hi, April.”
A storm of emotions erupted inside April. “Hi, April? That’s all you have to say? I hear nothing from you in more than a week, and now I’m finding out from Mel that you’ve found a new site for the library? What did you do?”
“Looks like the secret is out.” Vicki cocked her head toward the building next to them. “This is it. The new library.”
“What?” April looked at the building before them. The beautiful sandstone construction had to be a hundred years old, but it was in perfect condition. It was huge, at least twice the size of the old Oakmont Street Library. “You’re saying that this is the new library?” April asked.
Vicki nodded. “It’s all yours.”
“But… how? There’s no way Oasis would pay for something like this. And you’re not even working on the Oakmont Street project anymore.”
“I’m not. After everything that happened, I decided I was too close to it all, so I passed the lead to someone else. Oasis doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
“Then who did this? You?”
“Not just me,” Vicki said. “I contributed, but there’s no way I could afford this by myself. I had help.”
“From who?” April asked.
“My friends. Remember all those ‘rich snobs’ you met at the ball? I convinced them to donate funds toward a new library. Of course, even with help, I couldn’t get enough money to buy a place like this. It’s worth millions. Luckily, Camilla owns several properties in the area. I convinced her to sell this one to the library at an outrageously low price.”
April gaped at the building. “I can’t believe it. It’s perfect.”
Vicki brandished a key. “Want to take a look inside?”
April turned back to Vicki. She had so many things she wanted to say, so many things she wanted to hear Vicki say. And her heart kept beating faster and faster.
But she just nodded. “Sure.”
The two of them climbed the stairs leading up to the front of the building.
“You’re going to love it.” Vicki struggled with the lock on the ornate wooden doors. “It used to be a museum, but it was shut down in the 80s and the building fell into disrepair. Camilla’s family bought it decades ago, but they haven’t done anything with it. It’s been sitting here, empty, all these years.”
Vicki finally managed to unlock the doors. She flung them open.