The first time my father Wyatt Forbes told me her was a disappointment, he was holding my younger adopted sister Maggie's hand. The second time he told her, he was signing the papers that stripped her of my inheritance, with my older brother Donovan smiling down at me. The third time was five years after he disowned me because he wanted something she had. Only he wouldn't get it.

Lindsay was always the black sheep of her family of ruthless real estate moguls. They considered themselves a dynasty, and both Donovan and Maggie bought into that, playing her family's game, but that wasn't the life that Lindsay wanted. She liked turning other people's trash into treasure, so she focused on urban planning and distressed asset acquisition. When they disinherited her and stripped her of my inheritance, they also framed her for a corporate embezzlement scandal to clear the way for her brother’s promotion and left her with nothing.

But with nothing, something can grow, and what grew with her was marrying the right husband, Julian Dunaidh, and revenge.

"Take a look here," her husband, Julian, pointed down at the blueprints.

They were inside the old textile mill, which needed more than work to be useful.

"Hmm, that's very interesting," she replied, looking at what her husband had pointed out.

The broken glass on the floor from the windows shone at odd times, going into her eyes. The best part about this place was that most saw it as garbage and a liability, but for her and her husband, it was the first step in their plan.

"This will be a teardown, but that is no surprise," Julian said.

"Of course, but let's keep it like this a little longer with some invisible security. Let no one see what is coming," Lindsay suggested.

"You are always full of good ideas, my love."

"I've already marked places that would be good to acquire. We just need to be strategic about it. I heard many want to get out of this neighborhood because of this building," Julian explained.

No one knew she was Julian's wife; to the world, she was a disgraced daughter and a footnote in the Forbes dynasty. It was the way that she wanted it, so that no one would see them coming. The Forbes would never consider this area, but that was their mistake, and this would be the new centerpiece of the city. A piece of the puzzle that was already in her hands.

"The zoning board is still treating this neighborhood like a landfill," Julian murmured, his thumb tracing the faded red line of the property boundary. "They don't realize the city's new transit hub is shifting three blocks north. Things are already going our way."

The new train system was perfect; it made this neighborhood walkable and the geography valuable. Her father would never set foot in this place or any of the surrounding areas around it. In fact, most of the rich folks in real estate wouldn't; they ignore places like this because they feel like they are too good for it, but their ignorance and ego would be their downfall. Best of all, when this neighborhood transformed from a wasteland into a cultural epicenter, the Forbes Plaza would no longer be the center. It would be old and in the background of a much more interesting neighborhood. One for all of the people of this city, not just the wealthy.

"They're so focused on their riches that they've forgotten everyone else," Lindsay said, her voice echoing through the shell of the empty old mill. To the Forbes family, real estate was about the skyline, about who owned the highest floor and the most expensive view. They viewed the city as a collection of trophies. But Lindsay knew that the real power didn't lie in the trophy; it lay in the people left behind.

Julian smiled, the kind of expression that suggested he knew what she was thinking. Over the last eighteen months, they hadn't just bought the mill; they had quietly snapped up the narrow alleyways, the crumbling brick warehouses, and the forgotten easements that functioned as the nervous system of the district. "The games are about to begin, my queen," Julian murmured, "are you ready to play?"

"Yes."

And she took his hand.