Chapter 156 Vey-Mia Tea Hits a Wall
The small glass bottle of essential oil felt cool against Veyra’s palm as she held it up to the morning light.
She had fished it out of the trash bin, wiped the faint dust off its label, and held it for a long, heavy moment.
He had thrown it away.
It wasn’t because the oil was useless, nor was it because the ingredients had expired. It wasn’t an accident where he had knocked it off the table by mistake either.
He had intentionally set it inside the trash bin.
She walked over to the low coffee table in her living area, placed the bottle right in the center, and took a step back to stare at it.
It felt like a message, loud and clear.
Keep your distance. Don’t read too much into things. Don’t misunderstand our relationship.
She genuinely could not figure out why his attitude toward her had turned so icy so suddenly. He had always been somewhat distant and quiet, but never spiteful like this.
She made up her mind to just wait for him to come back. She would ask him about it directly and find out what had shifted between them.
She had expected his business trip to last maybe two or three days at most.
Two days went by, and there was no sign of his return.
Three days passed, and still nothing.
Four, five, six days dragged on.
Before she knew it, a full week had passed.
He did not return home.
Veyra ended up spending those seven days in absolute peace. There were no petty arguments, no harsh confrontations, and no awkward moments in the hallway.
She kept herself strictly on a productive daily schedule. She did her physical training in the morning, spent her afternoons reading in the study, and practiced her recipes at night.
She stayed busy enough that she barely had time to think about him at all.
She had also been a bit worried about Eleanor after their loud clash in the hallway earlier. She fully expected Eleanor to start scheming, throwing tantrums, or looking for ways to retaliate.
Instead, Eleanor had packed her bags and left.
She had returned to her family’s house, disappearing from the Thorne estate entirely.
Veyra didn’t know if her exit was temporary or if Eleanor would show up again in a few weeks. To be completely honest, she didn’t care either way.
It was a huge relief to have her gone, leaving one less headache to deal with around the house.
With the house so quiet, Veyra turned her focus entirely to her business contracts.
The first big deal was her partnership with Xavier Lala for the SN1818 project. She had signed the contract offering fifty percent equity and full cooperation without a second thought.
Xavier was already hard at work putting together the paperwork for human trials, getting regulatory filings in order, and pushing through official approvals. Since that whole process took a lot of administrative time, she didn’t need to be directly involved in the short term.
Her second contract was with Mia for Verra Tea. She had agreed to supply the start-up capital in exchange for twenty percent equity for Mia as the managing partner.
She had signed off on that agreement with a genuine, excited smile.
Mia had been working tirelessly ever since.
Even before handing in her formal resignation at the coffee shop, Mia had already taken care of all the preliminary setup work. She finalized their initial product lineup, nailed down the brand identity, and handled the official business registration forms.
She officially filed the trademark application for "Verra Tea," worked on logo ideas, and organized their drink menu.
Once her notice at the cafe was up, she quit her job completely and threw all her energy into hunting for a physical store location.
Megan joined her as her assistant, just as they had planned.
Together, the two of them scoured every single corner of the commercial district around Etland Medical University. They walked down every major street, checked every side alley, and called every single phone number listed on "For Rent" signs.
Unfortunately, the search results were pretty discouraging.
The asking prices for rent were ridiculously high. A decent store space around one hundred square meters in a high-traffic area cost over six hundred thousand per year. Worse yet, almost all of those prime spots were already locked down by big established chains like Starbucks and Costa.
The smaller spaces they looked at were certainly cheaper, but they were tucked away in terrible locations, hidden down dark alleys, quiet side streets, and commercial dead zones where nobody walked.
Mia had called Veyra three times in the span of just two days, her voice sounding completely exhausted and frustrated on the phone.
"We’re hitting a complete wall," Mia admitted during their last call. "Every space we look at is either way out of our budget, way too small, or hidden in a terrible spot where no customer will ever see us."
Veyra listened quietly, but she didn’t have a quick solution to offer her.
Now, Veyra sat on the edge of her bed, staring down at her silent phone.
The partnership contract was signed, the investment money was sitting ready in the account, and the drink recipes were completely perfected.
Yet, they had zero physical space to actually open up shop and start selling.
She thought about those astronomical rental figures around the university district. Six hundred thousand was just too steep for their current launch budget.
On the other hand, settling for a tiny, cheap spot in a hidden alley felt like a trap. They would save money on rent, but the shop would be totally invisible without foot traffic, which meant no daily sales.
Veyra pressed her fingertips against her temples, trying to soothe the dull throb building behind her eyes.
Finding a suitable shop location was turning out to be far more difficult than she expected, giving her one massive, ongoing headache.