Chapter 201 He offered to help
_Rowena’s POV_
By the time the sun started peeking through the curtains of my study, my desk was already an absolute mess.
Blueprints, notebooks, and sheets of paper covered every single inch of the table.
My eyes were burning from staying up straight through the night, but my brain just wouldn’t shut off.
If I was actually going to pull this off and build a working mechanical leg in three weeks, I couldn’t do it sitting on my bed with a sketchpad. I needed a real lab with serious equipment, and I needed it immediately.
Kristy’s words were still ringing in my ears, and the image of Brielle playing the sweet innocent saint in that hospital room made my stomach burn.
They thought I was bluffing or maybe I was just some bitter girl making empty promises to save face after slapping the city’s darling.
I picked up my phone off the desk and dialed Kasper. He answered on the very first ring, sounding entirely awake, as if he hadn’t slept a day in his life.
"Morning, Rowena," he said, his voice coming through the speaker. "What’s going on?"
"I need a private workspace, Kasper," I said, leaning back in my chair and rubbing the bridge of my nose. "A real engineering setup. I need 3D printers that can process high grade metal, micro circuit boards, precision tools, nerve mapping sensors, and a clean assembly line. Most importantly, it needs to be somewhere dead silent where nobody from the outside can bug me or leak what I’m doing."
There was a pause on the line, followed by the rapid clicking of keys as he typed into his system.
"I can clear out the lower level of the Ashthorne branch facility," Kasper said. "It’s a high security subterranean lab filled with modern machinery. Nobody goes down there unless they have my personal security clearance. I’ll have the access codes transferred to your phone by two this afternoon."
"Thanks, Kasper. You’re a lifesaver."
"Just make sure you win this little war, Rowena," he added with a rare trace of humor. "I heard about it, and the pack elders are already talking about the scene at the Logan party."
"I have no intention of losing," I replied before hanging up.
Right as I tossed my phone onto the desk, my study door swung open without a knock. Ezekiel walked in holding two massive ceramic mugs of coffee, steam rising into the air.
He looked slightly better than he had over the weekend, but there was still a noticeable dark circle hanging under his eyes, making him look far older than he actually was.
"Brought you some survival juice," he said, stepping over a discarded pile of notebooks and setting one of the mugs right on top of my neatest blueprint. "I caught the tail end of your call with Kasper while I was coming up the stairs. Are you really doing this? Building a whole functional leg from scratch?"
I took the mug, letting the heat sink deep into my cold hands. "I am. And I’m working on a ridiculously tight clock."
Ezekiel pulled out a chair and dumped himself into it, leaning forward to squint at the messy math equations and anatomical drawings I had scribbled everywhere.
He traced a finger over a sketch of a hydraulic knee joint.
"You know, if you need custom parts or rare metals, I can actually help you out," he said, looking up at me. "I have a few old contacts in high tech manufacturing from when I was managing supply routes. I can make a couple of quick phone calls and get high grade titanium alloys and custom microchips shipped straight to your new lab by tomorrow morning. No paper trail or questions asked."
I blinked at him, completely caught off guard by the offer. "Really? Ezekiel, you don’t have to do that. You already have enough on your plate."
"I want to," he said with a simple shrug, a small, genuine smile finally breaking through his tired face. "Besides, watching you completely shut Brielle and Kristy up is going to be the event of the century. I wouldn’t miss it for anything."
I let out a smile, taking a sip of the bitter black coffee. But when I looked at him across the desk, the dark circles under his eyes became impossible to ignore.
He was trying so hard to act casual, throwing around jokes and offering help, but his shoulders were slumped and he looked completely drained.
"How are you really doing?" I asked, setting my coffee cup down on a coaster. "Have you talked to Pierre at all since Friday?"
Ezekiel’s smile vanished in an instant. He let out a long breath that seemed to deflate his whole chest, rubbing the back of his neck as he stared down at the floorboards between his feet.
"No," he said, his tone flat and empty. "Things are still a complete mess. His pack elders are breathing down his neck after that photograph got leaked to the press, and he made it very clear that he needs space to put out the fire. Every single time I pick up my phone, I want to call him or drive over to his estate, but I know it’ll just make everything ten times worse right now."
"I’m really sorry, Ezekiel," I murmured, feeling a genuine pang of sadness for him. "The whole situation is completely unfair."
"It is what it is," He sighed, shaking his head slowly side to side. "Honestly, I think I’m going to pack up my things and leave the city for a while. Hanging around here while the tabloids keep obsessing over the scandal isn’t doing anybody any favors. Pierre needs room to handle his people without me being a target on his back, and I just need to get out of this place to clear my head."
"When are you planning to leave?" I asked, my heart sank a little at the thought of him going away. He had been one of the few real people in my corner lately.
"In a few days," he said, looking back up at me with a reassuring expression. "Don’t worry, though. I’m sticking around long enough to help you throw your stuff into the lab and get the machinery started. I am not entering any plane until I know you have every single tool you need to crush Brielle."
I looked at him for a long moment, deeply moved by how loyal he was even while his own life was crumbling around him.
"Alright then," I said, pulling a blank piece of paper toward me and taking off the cover of my pen. "Let’s make a list of everything we need to order. We have three weeks, and we’re not going to waste a single second."