Chapter 3

The outline of the giant superstore was taking shape.

Myron finally panicked.

He'd noticed the crowds at his own store were thinning by the day.

Word about his cheap, low-grade goods had started to bite back.

Wayne saw which way things were going.

So he paid a handful of idle older women to spread rumors like wildfire.

"That construction site across the way severed our neighborhood's luck line. From now on we're all cursed!"

"That building material is nothing but cheap junk, formaldehyde way over the limit. Once it's up, it's a poison den!"

The rumors flew fast.

The nearby residents grew jittery and afraid.

Myron reeled in a livestreaming influencer who worked as a community dispute mediator, a man who went by "Graham Perry the Peacemaker."

That morning.

Graham showed up with his livestream gear, dozens of neighborhood elders trailing behind him.

They blocked the front gate of my site.

Myron wept and wailed for the camera.

"Folks, I've got it so hard."

"I'm just a local old-timer, getting crushed by some out-of-town capitalist until I can't even survive!"

"He's not only stealing my business, he's cutting the feng shui out from under our whole street!"

Graham took the moral high ground.

"Mr. Perez, come out here and say something."

"A young man should have some vision. You can't make money by any means necessary."

"Take a step back. Stop the construction."

"Or sell half your shares to Uncle Myron here. Call it making a friend, everybody profits in peace."

Then the relatives and neighbors took turns guilt-tripping me too.

"A widowed old man raising a boy on his own, it's not easy. You've got all this money, why do you have to hound him to death?"

"That's right, would splitting half your turf with old Myron cost you a limb?"

"Rich people are just black-hearted. Can't stand to see a poor man do well!"

Leah reached out to shut off Graham's livestream camera.

"You people are spreading slander. Turn it off, now!"

I stopped her.

I walked up to the camera and smiled.

"Mr. Whitney, you really think this turf is yours to rule?"

Myron thought I'd caved.

In an instant his true face came out.

"On this patch of Westhill, I am the rules!"

"You don't sign those shares over today, and not one more brick moves on this site!"

"I don't give the nod, you couldn't build so much as a toilet here!"

Graham was still chiming in from the side.

"Mr. Perez, a wise man listens to good advice. Uncle Myron's asking for isn't unreasonable."