Chapter 4
Ten days later, Charlotte submitted anonymously as entrant seventeen.
Her design preserved the hotel’s stone corridors, converted the ballroom into flexible studios and reopened a sealed northern wall so artists could work in natural light.
Madison reviewed the final boards.
“This is the best thing you’ve made in years.”
“It might lose.”
Madison shrugged.
“That won’t make it smaller.”
Three days later, Preston called.
His voice began warm.
“I’m worried about you.”
Charlotte nearly laughed.
“That’s new.”
“Damon is not a man you understand.”
“And you are?”
“People close to him become useful or expendable.”
Charlotte opened the window of her small Wicker Park apartment.
Cold air entered.
“Which one was I to you?”
The warmth disappeared from Preston’s voice.
“You’re proving my point. You’re hurt and he’s taking advantage of it.”
“Did I tell you that?”
“I know you.”
“You knew the version of me that made your life comfortable.”
His breathing changed.
“People are saying you attached yourself to my boss to humiliate me.”
“I didn’t choose Damon to hurt you.”
The silence afterward was longer than Charlotte expected.
Because that answer wounded Preston more than anger could.
If she had dated Damon for revenge, Preston would still be important enough to direct her choices.
Indifference removed him even from the role of enemy.
“Stay away from Grand Meridian,” Preston said finally.
Charlotte looked at the sketchbook open on her table.
She had already discovered why.
Three elements inside Preston’s proposal had come from drawings she created eighteen months earlier.
A suspended walkway.
Preserved freight doors.
A narrow garden cut into the north courtyard.
Ideas she had shown Preston in their apartment.
Ideas he had photographed.
Ideas now labeled as the work of his design team.
“Why?” she asked.
Preston hung up.
The blind review results came two days later.
Charlotte ranked first.
May you like
Preston placed third.
Then his proposal was disqualified because several elements duplicated material found in Charlotte’s earlier documented work.
