3: 3
Dean was frowning.
"Cece, they're obviously just trying to walk all over us."
I gave a small shake of my head.
"There's no point squaring off with them. It won't cost us more than a few minutes anyway."
And with that, I pulled Dean over to the sofa in the corner of the lobby, and we actually sat down.
Seeing how agreeable I was, the smugness on Ida's face faded a little.
She narrowed her eyes and kept looking me over, her gaze full of probing.
I knew right away what she was thinking.
In our last life, the two of us had fought over this very apartment until we were both red in the face, neither willing to give an inch.
Yet this time, I was handing it over on my own.
Too out of character.
She was starting to wonder whether I'd been reborn too.
Sure enough, before long she came clicking over on her heels to stand in front of me.
"Cecily, weren't you dead set on buying this place before? So why is it suddenly no big deal to let it go?"
As she spoke, she stared hard into my eyes, as if trying to catch some crack in my expression.
But I acted like I noticed nothing at all and asked back with a smile,
"What? Don't tell me you don't want it anymore?"
"That works out perfectly. Just hand it over to us, then."
And I waved a hand at the agent.
"Hey, Louis, my cousin says—"
"Shut up!"
Ida bristled in an instant.
"Who said I don't want it!"
She glared at me, vicious.
"Cecily, not in this lifetime. Don't you dare take anything of mine again!"
I spread my hands, helpless.
"It's really hard being a person."
"I want it, you're not happy. I don't want it, and you're suspicious. What exactly do you want from me?"
Ida was left with nothing to say.
She stared at me for a long moment, and the wariness in her eyes finally began to drain away, bit by bit.
Of course.
If I really knew there was gold and cash hidden inside those walls, how could I possibly hand the apartment over to her so easily?
At that thought, she let out a quiet breath of relief.
Then she pulled Fergus off to the side at once and started conferring with him in a low voice.
"The second the contract's signed, I'm calling my cousin's renovation crew."
"Tomorrow's Sunday, no work then, so we smash the walls first thing the day after."
Fergus nodded.
"Right, no more dragging it out. The longer we wait, the more can go wrong."
Ida dropped her voice further.
"And another thing—we move in tonight, take turns guarding the master bedroom, and don't let a single soul near it."
The two of them thought they were being discreet, never realizing I could hear every word.
I almost laughed out loud.
They actually planned to take turns keeping watch through the night.
Genuinely terrified someone would carry the gold off.
Pity.
They could guard against people. They couldn't guard against the system.
Dean noticed the corners of my mouth kept curving up and couldn't help leaning in.
"Cece, you've been really off today."
"Come clean. Are you sitting on some scheme?"
I shook my head, smiling.
The secret of the system, I would never tell a soul.
Even though, after I died in my last life, Dean had nearly thrown everything away trying to get justice for me.
But with something like this, the fewer people who knew, the safer it was.
"What scheme? I just suddenly realized there's a better place out there."
Dean's eyes lit up at once.
"Where? Let's go see it right now."
I pulled up the map and pointed at that stretch of run-down old houses in the old east-side district.
Dean took one look and just froze.
"Babe, you sure? That place is even more of a wreck than the one back there. Can people actually live in it?"
"If your mom finds out we're using it as our marriage home, she'll break my legs."
I smiled and pressed a finger to my lips.
"So don't tell them yet."
"When the demolition comes through, we'll give them a surprise."
Dean's eyes went wide.
"Demolition?"
He was about to press further when I reached over and covered his mouth.
"Shh. It's a secret. Don't ask so many questions!"
