CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED AND EIGHT

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As we drive away from the garage I look over at Donna, "Hey, D?"

"Yeah?"

"What would you think about knocking down your house and starting again, a fresh build?" I ask, fixing my gaze on the street as I slow for a pedestrian crossing.

"But…what…Opie…I…we'd…Huh?" Donna struggles to get a single sentence out and I just laugh and wait.

We're turning onto Jax's street as she finally manages to get some of her thoughts straight enough to voice. "I'd never thought about it, Ope and I were happy to live in the house as it was, we were never planning to extend, renovate or anything. Rebuilding had never been in our view."

"What if I said it could be?" I ask, stopping outside Jax's house. "Just think about it? As many bedrooms as you want, new kitchen, games room for Opie, play room for the kids, Piney flat in the backyard." I jump out of the car and head inside, Donna stays where she is, lost in her own thoughts.

Unlocking the front door my first stop is the laundry where I drop my skirt into a short delicate wash and carefully wipe down my corset, setting it up on its bones on top of the drier to dry.

Walking through the quiet house and into the bathroom I pull all my hair up on top of my head in a messy bun and jump in the shower. 10 minutes later I'm out and dressed in a pair of black Capri pants and a purple shirt decorated with a peacock and a skull. Slipping my feet into my black flat sandals decorated with studs, 2 chains and skull and crossbones on each shoe I pull my skirt out of the machine which has just finished and hang it over the lid of the washing machine. Stepping back out the front door I lock it and go back to the truck where Donna is still sitting the same as she was when I left her 25 minutes earlier.

She doesn't speak a word on the drive to Elliot's office and it's not till I'm parking the truck in front of the cabin style building that she manages to break her train of thought.

Elliot steps out of the office as I'm locking the car behind us and he shakes his head, "Wondered when you'd be here to cause trouble."

I shrug a shoulder as I climb the steps. "Shut up Ell."

Donna looks slightly stunned but Elliot smiles at her, "Mrs Winston?"

With a violent shake of her head I chuckle as she replies as I knew she would, "Donna. My name is Donna. Mrs Winston is Opie's mother."

"Well, Donna, this way." Elliot holds open the door for my stunned friend who finally manages to gather her thoughts and climb the steps.

"Wanna tell me what the fuck that was about?" She asks, plonking herself in the chair beside where I'm sitting.

I smile at her, the edges of my mouth barely moving, "You're about to find out why your renovations or rebuild will be so reasonably priced. This may be one intense news day for you D. Hold on tight, it's a hell of a ride."

Donna raises an eyebrow at me as Elliot settles in his chair behind the desk, "So, what can I do for you?"

"Designs." I tell him with a roll of my eyes.

"For?" He asks, waving a hand in a 'come on' motion.

"The new, or improved, Winston house. I'm footing the bill though."

He nods and picks up his desk phone pushing a single button, "Hello dear, can you send Jenny down when you're done." A slight pause, "Okay, now would be good. Love you too." He hangs up the phone and looks back at us. "My architect is on the way, seeing you won't need me I'll just be over there."

He stands up and settles at the other desk in the room, a pile of papers in front of him. Donna clears her throat loudly and he looks up. "I still haven't got any of the reasons that this will be so cheap?"

I sigh, "I got a phone call about 3 years ago from my broker, I'll explain later, that one of the businesses I was keeping an eye on was in trouble. I got my lawyer; I'll explain that too, to look into becoming a silent partner in the business. The only conditions were that no one apart from immediately involved parties was to know."

Elliot smiles over at me, "Well, without you Oswald lumber would have folded, Construction would have followed. Charming would have lost 2 of its biggest employers because of a greedy developer."

I snicker softly. "A developer who happens to have the same last name as me. I really would have loved to see his face."

Elliot grins, the corners of his eyes crinkling. "You would have enjoyed it, and had a hard time hiding that it was you. He was so pissed off when he found out he couldn't buy the block of land he wanted that he had a hissy fit in the middle of Main Street."

"He wanted to build a strip mall right outside Charming; I wasn't going to let that happen! It would have destroyed Charming's charm, and made most of the small businesses fold." I mutter.

Donna's head is twisting between us both and it's not till we all hear footsteps on the deck outside that she puts the pieces together, "You own part of Oswald Lumber?"

I nod, "Construction and Beef too. I'm a completely silent partner though, and 50% of all my dividends are put straight back into the company to hire new staff and replace equipment."

Elliot stands up and walks over to the door as it swings open, "How'd that go?"

"Good, Karen only wants a new rotunda put in the middle, there's plenty in the accounts to do it, but maybe we could so some fund raising anyway." The tall red-haired woman replies as she steps through the gap and lets the door close behind her. Looking over and Donna and I a slow smile spreads across her face. "Nice to see y'all again." The Texan accent makes me take a second look at the woman standing in front of us and I remember the first time I met her.

I was 12 when I moved to Charming, my parents had only been dead for a few weeks when a group of older girls cornered me and started telling me my parents had committed suicide to get away from me, that I was a disappointment and that's why I was shipped off to live with an Uncle I had never met till their deaths.

Jennifer had been in Charming a few years, the only nice one in the group of teenagers she hung around with, she stood up for me that day and told the rest of the girls to leave me alone. She was the first person, other than my family, who had been nice to me since the morning my parents had left and never come home.

"Wow, wasn't expecting that." I say, slightly stunned, as Jennifer walks around the desk and sits in the chair on the other side.

Jennifer laughs as she settles herself in the chair. "Well, surprise aside, who am I designing for?"

Elliot pipes up from the desk he's seated at, "Donna's the client, and Sarah's the bank."

Jennifer looks at us both and smiles before question us on what we've done since high school. At some stage during the next 30 minutes she manages to completely turn the conversation to Donna and by the time she gets to the last question Donna has managed to describe exactly what she'd like her house to be like, from the 4 bedrooms, so they can have a spare she absentmindedly noted, 2 living rooms, eat in kitchen and a separate dining room.

Jennifer's final question is aimed at me, and it doesn't come till Donna is talking with Elliot on the deck, she leans towards me and says quietly, "What sort of budget does this place have?"

I raise my eyebrows, "None. What she wants, she gets. However, if I could add something I would say perhaps add an additional room to be a kid's play room; I'm sure it would fit?"

Jennifer nods, "I can make it work."

I smile and head out the door towards Donna, who's now waiting at the side of my car. As we climb into the car she looks over at me, "Right, do I get answers now?"

"Can I have coffee while I face the Donna-quisiton?" I joke, turning the car back towards town and waving at Jennifer and Elliot through the open driver's window.

"That would be permissible." Donna replies, with a smile.