Binding Agreement- Book 1 of the Tipton Dynasty

I Need To Let You Know

I walked around the store as the staff was getting the spring line put on the racks. The spring line was going to be launching today. We needed to have everything ready to go before we opened. Thanks to splitting up the work between last night and this morning we were almost ready to go.

"Everything's looking great." I smiled as I looked around the store.

Max, one of Cody's men, was now assigned to drive me around and keep me safe. Like Cody, Max didn't talk very much. It made me sort of miss having Theo be my driver. I had only met Max a handful of times, one of the first being when Damon had returned from Dallas and left to deal with the man Ava hired to take advantage of me.

It had been days and Damon was still refusing to talk to Martin. I could still tell he was beyond pissed about the whole thing too. He tried to conceal it the best that he could but when Sterling mentioned Martin the anger was obvious in Damon's eyes. I could only hope that maybe he would eventually come around.

"Are you excited boss?" Julie asked as she entered the store with a coffee for herself and a smoothie for me.

"Yeah." I answered.

"Good. You deserve all of this." Julie smiled. "How's this being handled on the online portion? I assume launch day is probably a little different."

"All that was explained to me is that once the store opens today then the page for the site can then be accessed by customers. I'm still not entirely sure how the whole online thing works." I responded.

"Well I still hope people buy even though your model kind of sucks." Julie made a snarky remark about the person I decided to use for the online model.

"You be nice. Victoria has worked hard here and she seems like she actually enjoyed the model work." I spoke with a serious tone in my voice.

The other investors like Victoria's look. The clothes were flattering on her and that's what we needed to help draw in more customers. She had the experience of modeling when she was younger so it was convenient. Though Victoria had redeemed herself to me, Julie was still on the fence about her.

"Sorry." I could tell she only said it to please me and that there was no sincerity.

"I understand that you still don't trust her and that's fine Julie. You're my best friend and I get that you're looking out, but I think you can stand down now." I spoke. "Besides we shouldn't be tearing others down."

Julie let out a sigh. "You're right. On to something else, I need a favor."

"What is it?" I asked.

"There's a concert Cody and I want to go to, it's about two weeks from today." She started to go into the details of her favor. "Can you maybe get your knight in shining armor to give Cody the night off?"

"Is Cody not capable of asking his boss for some time off?" I raised a brow as the words left my mouth.

"He is and he actually tried but Damon refused to discuss anything. So I figured maybe he would actually hear you out about it." Julie explained.

"Yes, I'll talk to him. He's been a little on edge lately about Justin's return." I responded.

"How is that going?" she asked curiously.

"Well Damon still refuses to speak with his father and I'm not sure if Justin's leaving at this point because he refuses to get more details from Martin." I let out a frustrated sigh. I was over dealing with this whole mess already.

"That's no fun, I'm sorry." I could see the sympathy in her eyes.

"It's fine." I glanced at the clock, it was time to open. I looked around the store and everything had finished coming together. "For now I have other things I need to focus on. Let's open and get this launch started."

"Of course boss." Julie went over and flipped the sign from closed to open.

The doors opened and we had a few people who had been waiting eagerly to get inside. The staff took their positions and business had started for the day.

"Julie." I spoke to get her attention once again.

"What's up?" she asked as she turned to look at me.

"I'll be in the back. I need to get some things together to work on the summer line. I've got like six weeks to get it all set before I start preparing for the baby." I started to head to the back room but turned around. "When Victoria comes in though, send her back here please."

"Okay." Julie nodded.

Victoria being a model had been sent away to a neighboring city to a photographer. I sent her out of Nashville on purpose when I knew of Justin's return. I knew the damage he had dealt to her and I wanted to help prevent her from having a run in with him. Now it seemed almost inevitable that she would have to know about this.

I started getting all the designs and everything together to submit for the line. We needed to get the clothes in the process of being made now. It seemed crazy that the same day the spring launch I already had to prepare for the next one. This was my life now as a designer, there never really was a break between work. Especially right now.

The door of the room opened and Victoria stepped inside. "I was told that you wanted to see me."

"Yeah. Sit down please." I directed as I put the designs away in a folder.

"Did I do something wrong?" She had a look of concern on her face as she took her seat. "If so I can fix it I promise Kaydence."

"You didn't do anything wrong." I assured her. "There's just something I need to talk to you about."

"What is it?" The concern on her face remained.

"I was trying to avoid you from having to deal with this. But I need to let you know that Justin's back." I decided it was best to get right to the point.

I could see the color drain from her face. "I thought. I thought Damon got rid of him for good. Why is he back Kaydence? Why?" I could see the fear grow in her eyes.

"Because Ava ended up in the mental facility Martin allowed Justin to return to see her." I explained. "He originally had a week but Martin let it extend past that and I don't know how much longer this is going to last."

Victoria sat there speechless. I could tell this was information that she didn't expect to receive today. She was clearly shaken up and for good reason. Justin had been so violent towards her. She knew the worst of his abuse.