I Was His Secret Genius, Now I’m His Biggest Regret Chapter 08

I Was His Secret Genius, Now I’m His Biggest Regret Chapter 08

Ava found the man’s comment slightly amusing.

She took the suitcase from Ethan and nodded politely to both of them. “Thank you for the ride. I’ll go check in now.”

“Wait,” Ethan said.

He took a pen and a receipt from his pocket, leaned against the truck door, and quickly wrote down a phone number and an address. He handed the slip of paper to her. “My number and the distillery address. Since you just got to Nashville, if you run into any trouble with permits or equipment, give me a call.”

Ava looked down at the neat, decisive handwriting. She was a little surprised, but she took it. “All right. Thank you.”

The man in the baseball cap was so shocked his mouth hung open. “Ashton, you’re giving a… a potential competitor your number? And your address? Did some Kentucky witch put a spell on you?”

Ethan ignored him and said only to Ava, “Go on inside. It’s getting late.”

Ava nodded and wheeled her suitcase toward the hotel entrance.

Behind her, she could still hear the man’s incredulous voice. “Ashton, tell me the truth! Who is she? The secret weapon you poached from Kentucky? If you don’t tell me, I’m telling everyone Nashville’s coldest distiller finally has a heart!”

Ava shook her head with a smile and pushed open the hotel door.

The process of leasing the factory space went much more smoothly than she had imagined.

When she pushed open the heavy iron door, the smell of dust, metal, and the sweet aroma from a nearby malt house rushed to meet her. It was an empty, small-scale factory. Sunlight streamed through the high windows, casting patterns on the concrete floor.

Ava set her suitcase by the door and walked to the center of the factory.

In her previous life, she had also stood countless times in an empty space, waiting.

But that had been in the grand, cold showroom of Montgomery Distillery, surrounded by marble and walls of awards. There, she had waited for a husband who never came home on time, and for two children who grew more distant from her, ashamed of her.

She had waited half a lifetime, only to be abandoned in a fire and have her children shatter her life’s work with their own hands.

This time, she stood here, in this empty space filled with possibility.

She took a deep breath.

This time, she was waiting for her own future.

From this day on, she was no longer Mrs. Montgomery.

She was Ava Chen, founder of Angel’s Share Distillery.