Next Generation (Book 4)

Rock Bottom

|Jamie's POV|

Looking around at the studio, my heart was broken. The girls had come by, but I sent them home and told them to shut everything down for the time being. While we had just closed on studio #2, we were going to have to work overtime to get business up and running.

We had worked so hard to find this location and business was going well. That was the whole point of the expansion, for a bigger space. We were going to still keep this studio and while I'm sure we can rebuild, I don't know if I want to put money back into this location. Our new space is a building of its own. We decided to buy instead of rent. It's a lot of work that needs to go into it, but maybe in the end it'll be a blessing in disguise. At least that's what I'm telling myself to not get depressed over this fire. Right now, I don't even know where to start cleaning this up. Everything has officially come to a screeching halt.I was wearing a mask stepping over the endless debris, taking pictures on my phone.

"Jamie."

I turned to see Tyler standing there. He gave me a hug.

"Hey, Ty. How's Izzy?"

"Just fine since she's not seeing all of this."

"I'll have to take pictures for insurance purposes. Everything is gone."

"I'm sorry."

I shrugged.

"I've lost things before, what's new?"

I didn't give him a chance to respond as I started to take pictures and further inspect things for myself. I was standing in what was once my office when I got a call from Brandon.

Hello.

Hey babe. You okay?

I'm fine, Brandon.

Jamie, stop saying you're fine when you're not.

I don't want to speak to you right now, Brandon. Your parents are with Bianca. I'm trying to straighten things out here so I can get back home. I'll talk to you later.

Jamie, don't...

I needed to get out of here. Walking back out I saw Tyler was still there.

"I thought you had left."

He shook his head.

"I'll leave when you do. You need me to do anything?"

"Today, no. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do."

"You don't need to make a decision today."

I nodded. He was right. Me being in shock right now, hence why I'm so calm.

"Tell Izzy I'll keep her posted once I get a clean up crew and everything in place. I'm sure we'll have paperwork to do. For now, she can focus on getting the contracts in place for the new studio like she was already doing."

"Alright. You know she'll be calling you later."

I laughed.

"Oh don't I know it. For now, tell mama bear to chillax. I got this. Take care of my niece."

We headed out and on my way back home, I started to feel the tears stinging my eyes. Why the hell am I so emotional about this? I pulled into our driveway and sat there, trying to compose myself. Didn't work. I started sobbing. I snapped out of my trance hearing my phone go off in the car. I looked to see it was Uncle Kev calling.

Hello.

Hey, sweetheart.

Hearing him say that, I sobbed even harder.