Chapter Text
Lena stared off out the window as the seemingly never-ending meeting droned on. Lately, she had increasingly been on autopilot, it was the only way that she could make it through the day-to-day grind. She had never wanted to be CEO in the first place and was more than happy to spend the rest of her days in the lab researching and inventing. But, once again, being a Luthor got in the way of that. Since Lex and Lillian had gotten themselves thrown into the hoosegow—Jack’s words, not hers—Lena quickly became the majority shareholder of Luthor Corp and subsequently its new CEO. The initial shift had been an interesting experience. Suddenly she had been thrust into the spotlight and her voice was the only voice that mattered. It had been a baptism by fire but Lena had risen to the challenge despite the inner voice—that sounded an awful lot like Lillian—telling her that she would never quite measure up to the task. She had done her best to shut out that voice and then proceeded to single-handedly turn around the entire company and distance it and herself away from her family. L-Corp was hers. It wasn’t marred by the rather lengthy list of white collar crimes that Lex and Lillian had been accused and rightfully convicted of. But seven years on she found herself weary of mind and body and longing to return to her laboratory roots. She missed the rush of finally having a breakthrough after weeks or even months of being stumped. She missed the creativity and complex problem solving. As the CEO she barely had a moment to sneak away to even pay a visit to the R&D department.
The general malaise that her job had caused her had now started to bleed into not only her personal life, but her life in total. Her eyes stared blankly at the skyscrapers around her own building. Everything seemed to be in shades of gray and—though she didn’t know how it was possible exactly—everything seemed…two dimensional. Nothing seemed real and she felt like she was just going through the motions as the constant flow of the river of time dragged her helplessly through her life.
“Lena?”
Lena snapped out of her staring contest with the abyss and spun her chair back around to the table. Dozens of pairs of eyes were looking at her including those of the presenter: Andrea Rojas.
Lena took a deep breath and sighed. “No.” she said simply.
A shocked Andrea moved to speak but was interrupted.
“But they have had negative growth for the last five quarters!” exploded a board member. “Walsh Technologies has been an anchor dragging down L-Corp for far too long!”
Lena narrowed her eyes at him. “To be perfectly clear I only allowed this meeting to happen to placate those that had been foaming at the mouth over the prospect of increasing their own portfolios. But I have never wanted, nor will I ever want, to sell Walsh Technologies.” she looked at Andrea. “I’m sure that it would have been in good hands with Obsidian North but when I saw in your proposal that you would be working on a joint venture with Lord Industries my already firm declination immediately became ironclad. I’m disappointed in you, Andrea, you know what happened between my brother and Maxwell Lord. The moment you as much as thought about accepting Lord’s proposal the less than one percent chance you had at acquiring any piece Walsh Technologies had been rendered null and void instantaneously.”
Several pairs of angry eyes pinned Lena but she couldn’t care less.
“And it’s not like any of you have any say to begin with.” Lena shot the look back. “Walsh Technologies is a private subsidiary of L-Corp, of which I am the sole proprietor.” she looked back at Andrea. “So while I appreciate your thorough presentation and proposal, Ms. Rojas, I’m afraid we won’t be pursuing anything further with Obsidian North. I thank you for your time.”
With that she got up and went back to her office. The only reason why she truly had allowed this meeting had nothing to do with any of the board members or even any shareholders, it was purely to gather information. Lena had had a hunch that since several of her father’s older patents were about to run out Maxwell Lord was looking to capitalize on the Walsh name and history that came with it. Lionel had gotten his start in life with Walsh Technologies before building the Luthor Corp empire from the ground up. But that wasn’t the only reason why Lena wouldn’t give it up. There was a rather…personal…one as well. She sat down at her desk and pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a migraine coming on. The sound of very deliberate clicking heels made her internally roll her eyes.
And here it comes. Her back was instantly ramrod straight as she squared her shoulders.
“What the hell, Lena?” said Andrea as she stormed into the office, closing the door behind her.
“I already told you, Andrea, it’s not going to happen.” Lena sighed in frustration. “I might have considered selling you part of the company and working together but the moment you struck whatever deal you did with Lord is the moment you lost any chance.”
Andrea crossed her arms. “Look, I know you still think that he stole your design—”
“Oh my god.” Lena laughed mirthlessly and rolled her eyes. “And here we go again…” her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Just because I was never able to find concrete proof that it was him doesn’t mean it wasn’t. My CAD drawings were found on Lord Industries’ internal servers!”
“For all we know it could have been Lex!” defended Andrea.
“Oh, please.” spat Lena. “You and I know that my brother is the poster child for corporate corruption but what motive would he have giving his ex-business partner designs to a machine that would make him millions if not more?”
“Lex has done many questionable things over the years.” Andrea tried one last time.
Lena let out an indignant laugh. “You want to know why it never worked out between us? This. Exactly this. For whatever reason you never seemed to take my side.” Lena held up a hand as Andrea moved to speak. “And I know, I know. You have your own company to run. And I don’t envy the mess that your father left, believe me. I know my fair share of family fuck-ups. But even outside of this corporate hell world you never did.”
Andrea’s shoulders slumped and she dropped her arms. “I’m sorry. My father left a mess and I was looking for a quick way out. Max had an offer and made it hard to refuse.”
“What exactly did he offer you?”
“Seventy percent.”
Lena’s eyebrows were up to her hairline. “Of profits?”
“Yes.” said Andrea. “If Obsidian were to acquire Walsh Technologies then Lord Industries would do a 70/30 split. Which would be enough to cover Obsidian’s recent losses and then some.”
“That’s absurd!” scoffed Lena. “There’s no way in hell Max would pour money into something only to barely recoup losses, if any gains were made in the first place. There has to be more to it.”
Andrea shook her head. “Nope. He just wanted to integrate the medical imaging equipment lines with his own.”
“Ah.” Lena nodded in realization. “And there it is.” She shook her head. “He was going to use you, Andrea. The patent on my father’s machines is almost up, which means he could start producing Walsh’s as his own. He was only going to use the name and bide his time then cut his losses and probably sell off his half to someone else or sell it back to you, leaving Obsidian holding the bag when Walsh Technologies’ flagships become a thing of the past compared to whatever he was planning on rolling out afterwards.”
Andrea shrugged defeatedly. “I had to try something, Lena. If I can’t get things turned around fast enough there’s going to be massive layoffs. I don’t want that on my conscience in addition to everything that my father did.”
“I know the feeling.” Lena empathized. “But my answer still remains. I will not sell Walsh Technologies to you because I was never looking in the first place, but especially since Lord’s name is attached to the offer.”
“I understand.” Andrea bowed her head and was silent a moment. “Do you think we could do dinner some time? I really would like to talk about what happened. You know…with us.”
Lena felt the tears threatening to build up in her eyes and felt her stomach clench. She shoved everything down as she cleared her throat.
“I think we’ve said everything there is to be said.” she said pointedly.
Andrea saw the look in her eye and backed down. “Okay. Thanks for the meeting…I guess. Goodbye, Lena.”
Andrea gave her one last look that seemed to be guilt twisted with regret before quietly opening the door and leaving. The moment the door shut Lena let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding and fell back into her chair. She spun back around to stare blankly out at the National City skyline. The warm May sun was shining brightly in a clear blue sky but all Lena could see was gray. Her stomach was churning with raw emotions that she desperately tried to shove down. She closed her eyes tightly and one by one put everything back into their little boxes. The pieces of her heart that she had taped back together after Andrea. The scars and wounds that Lillian and Lex had left and that would never properly heal. The disdain for her current career. The aching loneliness and emptiness that was her life.
The tears dried up and she opened her eyes again.
In the beginning it had been enough for her to know that she was doing some good in the world with the changes that she brought to L-Corp, but as the constant pressure and stress of her unwanted and forced position wore her down, it was no longer enough to keep her going. She still working just as hard, but as an empty husk fulfilling its required duties to keep the massive machine going because if she failed, if L-Corp failed, not only would it rain hellfire down on her head whenever Lillian and Lex got out of prison, but she would be finished. Tens of thousands of people would lose their jobs and in their eyes, as well as the eyes of the public, she would just be another hated Luthor, she would truly lose herself. But maybe the abyss that would open up and swallow her wouldn’t be all that bad, at least it would induce the ultimate emotional shut-down that would cause a permanent numbness. If she was numb then maybe she would be able to handle being alone for the rest of her life. Sure, she could have any number of trysts with women that were more than willing to be her bedfellow even if it is only for one night, and there had been several such nights after her disastrous breakup with Andrea, but any more it wasn’t worth it. It was always about her name or her money. Lena’s increasing emotional numbness had also been spreading to other parts of herself and leaving a craving that could not be satisfied a hundred times over by the most beautiful and talented one night stand. It couldn’t be satisfied because the craving was love and she wasn’t worthy of it. She was a Luthor, and that’s how Luthors were raised. Desperately clamoring for any scrap of any emotion that wasn’t disappointment or eternally devastating indifference. Whatever love she had within herself had been iced out over the years until it was harder than stone.
A knock at her door roused Lena from her dark thoughts. She turned to see a timid Sam stepping in.
“Hey.” she said softly. “I heard about the meeting with Andrea.”
Lena merely sighed tiredly in response.
“That bad, huh?” said Sam as she sat down across from her.
Lena picked at her fingers. “It’s been three years and when I see her I still feel so…angry. Hurt. Empty.” she shook her head. “Worthless.”
Sam gave her a sympathetic look. “At least you got to publicly shoot her down. Jess read me the meeting notes. I bet that felt good.”
Lena cracked a small sly grin. “That it did. God. She knew what she was getting into with him and she still thought she had a chance.”
Sam grinned. “How you two made it last as long as you did, given both of your tendencies to be bull-headed, I’ll never know. No offence.”
“None taken.” said Lena. “You’re right. Looking back it was impressive that we lasted even two years.” she shrugged. “What can I say? It was a boarding school crush dream come true. Despite twenty-seven year old Lena’s logic, horny sixteen year old inner Lena won out.”
She and Sam both chuckled. Lena sobered.
“What am I doing here, Sam?”
Sam crossed her legs and leaned back comfortably in her chair. “You know, I’ve been asking myself that lately. You haven’t been you, Lena.”
“Understatement.” quipped Lena.
“I’m serious.” said Sam. “Even when you do come out with Jack and I, you seem like you’re, I don’t know…phoning it in? You might be with us but you’re not exactly present. If that makes sense.”
“It does.” Lena nodded. “I just miss the way things were before Lex and Lillian had to go and fuck everything up. I miss my lab. I miss my research. I miss feeling like I was actually making a difference in the world instead of constantly worrying about the bottom line and answering to the board or shareholders and worrying about the insane amount of people that I keep gainfully employed.”
“I know.” said Sam gently. “But Jack and I have also had this discussion with you many times over. You could—”
“I can’t, Sam.” Lena interrupted. “I can’t do that to you. Either of you. This isn’t your burden.”
“Lena.” Sam sighed empathetically. “We wouldn’t have brought it up if we didn’t want to do it. It would allow you to get back into the lab.” she arched a playful eyebrow. “Besides. With you back in the lab churning out new invention after new invention after new breakthrough, you wouldn’t have to worry about the bottom line or employment as you will be singlehandedly responsible for it.”
Lena sighed. “I will consider it. And as appealing as your offer sounds, I just…can’t. Not yet. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“So…does that mean you’re actually considering our offer?” queried Sam.
“Thought about? Yes. Actively considering? No.”
“Ah. But you’ve at least thought about it.” smiled Sam. “I’ll take that as a win. For now.”
Lena playfully rolled her eyes.
“Jack will want to go out tonight to celebrate you royally slamming Andrea’s proposal today.”
“Not tonight. This week has been particularly stressful because of it and I plan on spending my evening soaking in a hot tub and drowning my sorrows in a very expensive bottle of red and then promptly passing out in an alcohol and dark chocolate-induced coma.” Lena said wryly. “Maybe sneak a greasy double bacon cheeseburger and a horribly cheesy rom-com in there too. I’m thinking…early 2000s.”
Sam thought a moment. “That actually sounds like a nice night in. Maybe I should send Ruby over to a friend’s tonight.” she chuckled. “But seriously, are you going to be okay?”
Lena smiled meekly. “As okay as I usually am.”
Sam looked at her thoughtfully. “I know that this is a sensitive subject, but have you thought about dating again? Get some excitement in your life?”
Lena shook her head. “No. I just…I’m just not in the right headspace for it right now. And no. it doesn’t have anything to do with Andrea. I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like maybe I’m just meant to be alone.”
Sam leaned forward and reached out and took Lena’s hand in her own. “Don’t say that. You deserve happiness, Lena. You know that, right?”
“Theoretically? Yes. Practically? I’m not sure.” admitted Lena.
“Oh, sweetie.” Sam frowned. “I think we need to have another girl’s night. Soon?”
“Soon.” echoed Lena with a small smile.
Sam sighed before patting her hand and releasing it. “Well, I need to get going. Ruby is actually having a sleepover tonight with two of her friends so I need to do a little pre-gaming myself.”
Lena let out a snort of laughter.
“I’m serious, Luthor.” said Sam. “Have you ever had to deal with three twelve year olds hopped up on sugar and caffeine? Shit gets crazy. Come here.”
Sam gestured for Lena to stand up, so she did and Sam wrapped her in a bear hug.
“Seriously, girl, we’ve got to get you figured out. Somehow.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible.” said Lena softly.
* * *
Her mouth felt like sandpaper and her head felt like it was going to explode. Lena cracked a bleary eye and immediately regretted it as the morning sunlight instantly blinded her. She rolled over and away from the windows and fumbled blindly for her phone on the bedside table.
9:17.
Pretty impressive considering she usually is incapable of sleeping past six even on the weekends. She groaned and pulled the blankets up higher and buried herself further in the cocoon of warmth, deliberately ignoring her screaming bladder for a few seconds longer. Eventually physiology won out and she staggered out of bed, the pounding in her head intensifying and making her dizzy as her own pulse drummed in her ears. Memories of last night were slowly coming back to her.
She had done exactly what she had told Sam she would do. It had started with her favorite guilty pleasure meal: a double bacon cheeseburger from Big Belly Burger. From there she proceeded to inelegantly wash it down with half a bottle of rather expensive cabernet sauvignon. She faintly remembered hearing Lillian’s voice scolding her for wasting such a complex bouquet on “common slop”. The voice was slowly drowned out as the alcohol warmed her veins. She finished off the night by cleaning out a box of dark chocolates made by National City’s premier chocolatier. Lena grabbed her phone as she trudged out of the bathroom and into her kitchen. There had been a fancy bath that she had somehow managed to draw for herself and some exploratory hands that had resulted in the typical pattern of somewhat working her up but ultimately failing in the end.
There were a litany of texts from both Sam and Jack checking in on her throughout the night. Sam had also sent her updates from the sleepover which apparently had taken a turn for the dramatic when a boy from Ruby’s class “liked” one of her TikToks. Whatever that meant. Jack had tried to entice her to join him for a night out by sending pictures of himself with various attractive women and telling her “could be you, babe”. She remembered rolling her eyes when his last text mentioned something about seeing a pair of arms as thick as pythons and proudly announcing that he was returning back to men.
As Lena continued to look through her phone a new email came through.
“Grant Realty?” she wondered aloud.
She clicked on the email.
Miss Luthor,
Thank you for your interest in the property located at 12135 Schlatter Road, Midvale, Indiana. I will be in the office today and would be more than happy to show it to you. Any time after noon works.
Snapper Carr, Commercial Realtor, Grant Realty
Midvale?!
Lena’s eyes widened in surprise and slight horror as the missing pieces of her night came roaring back.
Her first mistake was the amount of wine that she had decided to ingest. Her second, watching Under the Tuscan Sun. The movie had left her feeling horribly alone as well as wanting to just do something spur of the moment for herself for once in her life. There had been her tablet and lots of scrolling through real-estate porn. She blamed Diane Lane for giving her the idea that a random small town and a vineyard—read: farmland—was just the thing she needed to turn her life around. Cue Midvale, Indiana and one hundred acres of partially wooded farmland for sale. How Lena was ever able to type out an email and not sound totally sloshed was beyond her, but somehow she did it and had a response only eight hours later. Part of her wanted to ignore the email and pretend that this all never happened. But another part, a very small and very curious part, was telling her that it wouldn’t hurt to just…check it out. If anything it would get her out of her penthouse and maybe even out of her own head for a bit. The hour and a half drive would also be a welcome change from her usual chauffeured drive to and from work every day.
Fuck it. Nothing would be lost from just getting out of the city for most of the day.
She quickly typed a response email requesting a three o’clock meeting and hit send. It would give her more than enough time to recover enough from last night. As she went about making herself some coffee her phone chimed with another email.
Perfect. Sounds great. I look forward to meeting you. Attached are the directions and some more information about the property.
Lena clicked on the attachments and started reading through the PDF. Much to her surprise there was a full report on soil samples and terrain composition. No doubt something that someone who would potentially want to farm the land would want to know about. Though she had no reason to care Lena still found it fascinating. She had never outright bought land before only buildings. There was also information that seemed to be aimed at housing developers as well. Considering the size of the property it wouldn’t be uncommon for a developer looking to create a new neighborhood and housing that they could sell at a premium considering the location, as well as cramming as many houses in there as they could.
After getting a shower her stomach had settled down enough that she could eat. She pulled up Midvale and decided to check out the place while munching on some avocado toast with scrambled eggs.
Population: 1200.
Small town indeed. The more she kept researching the more foreign it seemed compared to the city. A rather large portion of the population, much larger than she expected, was Amish. That discovery in and of itself sent her down a whole other research tangent. All in all Midvale didn’t seem too different than typical small town America, and having never been anywhere that could be remotely considered as such, Lena found it rather intriguing. After inevitably declining to actually by the land she figured she could at least walk around the town and get a glimpse of what life outside of a major city was like. Something told her that the mansion that she grew up in just on the outskirts of Metropolis was nothing like what she was about to see.
When the time finally came to leave Lena couldn’t help but feel a little…nervous? Excited? Whatever it was she was just glad for the change. She had opted out of wearing her CEO attire but had struggled with deciding what to wear. What does one wear when one doesn’t want to obviously stand out? She had dug into her massive closet and pulled out a light green dress. It was sleeveless but had a conservative neckline and was one of her more loose dresses that didn’t cling to her in all the right places. Forgoing her typical tortuous high heels she had found a pair of shorter wedges that thankfully went well with the dress. Her hair was down with a soft side part and her makeup was light and natural, there was no need for her usual fierce red today.
Once she had gotten out on the interstate she had forgotten why she had stopped driving as much. She had set up her phone to alert her for speed traps and then, with a wicked smile, let her poor supercharged Mustang stretch its legs for once. Cars had never really been her thing but that was one thing Lena could thank Andrea for opening her up to. She may have gotten a little too interested in the engineering aspects and had tested out her upgrades at the National City NASCAR track once or twice in years previous. Thankfully since it was the middle of a Saturday, once she got about thirty miles outside of the city there had been little to no traffic and she let the sleek black machine rip and floored it to whatever awaited her in the north.
Lena had let her mind wander a bit during the long drive. Lillian would probably have a heart attack if she knew that Lena was even entertaining such a ridiculous idea, let alone actually driving there herself. The distance alone would have been enough for her or Lex to take a small private plane or even a helicopter. Lena had taken it a step further and allowed herself to indulge in the fantasy of buying the land and building a house. She imagined a library filled with floor to ceiling bookshelves that required a ladder, and an open fireplace with a large overstuffed chair where she could curl up with a book and read for as long as she wanted. Maybe she would even have a vegetable garden. Fresh tomatoes and herbs. She had enough space that she could even have a pool or a private pond. Sam, Ruby, and Jack could come up and visit during the summers and swim. There would have to be a rather large addition to the house that would be connected by a hallway or walkway of sorts, separate but still connected. There she could have an office and even possibly her own private lab where she could tinker away at new projects. Lena sighed. As great as it all sounded in theory, it still felt like it was missing something, or rather, someone. Even in her own fantasy Lena couldn’t escape her loneliness. Just herself and a big empty house. Just like her childhood.
The voice from her GPS broke Lena out of her fantasy. It was then that she realized that she realized she was so not in the city anymore. There was nothing around for miles but open fields and patches of woods with houses here and there. It felt like she was in another world. Eventually, after getting off of the interstate and taking a bunch of roads that were named simply by number and direction (County Road 200 North, 320 South, and so on) she finally saw the sign for Midvale. The town had looked almost exactly as it had online. Downtown was made of up small shops and storefronts. In the center was a small municipal building that read: Town Council. There was a grand total of five parking spaces in the lot and a strange looking post and bar of sorts. But what really caught her eye was the horse and carriage…wait, that’s wrong…buggy. Horse and buggy, that’s what it’s called. What really caught her eye was the horse and buggy sitting in front of her waiting at the red light. Her brain was having trouble reconciling seeing something so pre-industrial surrounded by a modern world. Her brain further broke when the buggy turned and she saw a young Amish girl looking down at a cell phone while her boyfriend(?) drove the buggy. The sound of the horse’s shoes on the pavement was another wonder. Lena had taken a carriage ride once through Central Park but that had not prepared her for what she had just witnessed. Lena didn’t have much time to process everything as her GPS took her outside of town and further into what she assumed were corn fields. About five minutes outside of Midvale she finally turned into a makeshift drive. There was already a white SUV waiting for her and a woman got out as she pulled in.
There was no way in hell that that woman was Snapper Carr.
The woman carried herself with the utmost importance and an air of superiority. Her blonde hair was perfectly coifed without a single strand out of place. Her black dress and heels were very obviously designer. She smiled widely as Lena got out of her car.
“Miss Luthor! Hello!” she stuck out her hand. “Cat Grant, Grant Realty.”
Lena shook her hand. “Hi. I’m sorry if I look surprised. I was expecting to meet someone named Snapper Carr.”
Cat waved her off. “Oh, don’t worry about him. It was his Saturday to work, that’s why he responded. Usually he deals with the commercial aspect. Not exactly personable. No, no. When he told me someone was interested in this property after only being posted for twenty-four hours I was intrigued. Then when I found out that it was from the official business email of Lena Luthor from L-Corp, well—“ Cat’s eyes sparkled with the potential of a huge deal, “—naturally I had to take care of this showing myself.”
“I see.” said Lena.
Cat gestured widely to the surrounding land. “One hundred acres of prime farmland. Approximately fifty-five acres are wooded. Perfect for developing or a cozy country getaway.” She looked back at Lena. “From one business woman to another, there is tremendous potential here.”
Lena didn’t know exactly what she was looking at. The land was essentially flat with a few hills in the distance and a line of dense woods. She eyed Cat from behind her sunglasses and regarded her as someone that was a straight shooter.
“Listen, I’m going to be perfectly honest, I sent that email when I wasn’t in a right headspace. I have literally no idea what I’m doing out here.” she admitted.
Cat looked her over and Lena suddenly felt like she was under Lillian’s searching gaze, as if she was trying to find fault.
“Miss Luthor, you strike me as a woman that knows what she wants.” said Cat after a moment. “There was a reason why you sent that inquiry. Just as there is a reason why you drove over a hundred miles out here to essentially the middle of nowhere. Now, I know that you are quite intelligent, yes, based off of just a cursory Google search I can see your numerous credentials, therefore I know you possess at least a sliver of self-awareness. So you tell me, Miss Luthor, what are you even doing here?”
Lena was taken aback for a moment. Cat certainly had a commanding presence and didn’t seem to care who she was addressing nor the manner. It was almost as if the woman thought she herself was incapable of doing any wrong. It gave Lena pause. She debated with herself for a moment before ultimately surrendering. It’s not like she would see Cat Grant again even if she declined the purchase.
“I’m looking to introduce some change into my life.” Lena sighed as she looked at the otherwise empty land. “I could blame an entire bottle of wine and a 2008 rom-com for my decision to even send that email.” she sighed. “But the movie is over and I’m sober, so the only reason I’m here is because maybe this could possibly be the change I need.”
“Mm.” hummed Cat thoughtfully. “Change is inevitable. But it’s nice when we are able to control it.”
Lena laughed mirthlessly. “Don’t even get me started on control issues.” she shook her head. “If I were to purchase this land I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I’ve never built anything before. Purchased a near billion dollar skyscraper for business purposes? Yes. Penthouse? Yes. Build a house, from scratch no less?” she trailed off.
Cat seemingly produced a business card from nowhere and handed it over to her.
J’onzz Homes, LLC
“If you’re looking for a place to start I would suggest there. It’s a family-run business. Excellent quality homes. Their architect can work wonders for custom home design and don’t even get me started on the carpenter. She’s well on her way to becoming a master craftsman. The kitchen cabinets that she built for my kitchen remodel are amazing. Not to mention the entire custom bedroom suite.” Cat gushed. “Worth every penny.”
Lena stared at the card for a moment. There was no way she was going to do this. No way. There was literally no reason on earth as to why she should do this. She had a perfectly acceptable top floor penthouse overlooking all of National City that the wealthiest of the city’s citizens would kill each other for. She could just take a vacation or have an extended spa weekend with Sam. This was crazy. She was insane. Lena looked over at Cat.
“Do you want cash or will a check be fine?”