Special Ability

A truck horn suddenly sounded from the street outside.

Amelia pushed the thought aside for the moment and headed back toward the gate.

The first flatbed truck rolled in a few minutes later. The driver climbed down and flipped open a clipboard to check the delivery papers.

“Fourth Street warehouse?”

“Yes.”

“Mrs. Vance?”

“That’s me.”

He handed her the paperwork. “Hundred tons of rice, fifty tons of beans, forty tons of flour, plus the other items,” he said, checking the line items. “This is the first partial shipment. The rest will be delivered in several loads over the next few days.”

Amelia glanced at the papers. Everything matched.

“Unload these inside.”

The driver signaled to the workers.

Amelia stayed nearby while they brought the first four pallets into the warehouse. She had already arranged for new digital locks to be installed, but after what she had found earlier, she needed to speed up the structural security work and get the cameras installed as soon as possible.

She answered a few questions about where the supplies should be placed and signed the delivery form when they were done.

When the truck finally left, Amelia waited until it disappeared from view before walking back to the first pallet.

She placed her hand against the plastic wrapping. Then she focused. The pallet disappeared.

Amelia stared at the empty space. She looked toward the warehouse entrance before letting out a small breath.

The ability worked.

She opened the space in her mind again. The pallet was still there, suspended inside the dark void. Amelia moved to the second pallet and stored that one too.

Then the third. She stopped before touching the fourth.

The pallet was filled with bottled water. She wasn't sure how much the spatial storage could hold, but she reached out and touched the plastic wrapping anyway.

The moment she tried to pull it into the void, a sharp pressure formed behind her eyes.

Amelia immediately pulled her hand back. Her vision blurred, and she stumbled a step.

Pain shot through her head. She touched her nose and looked at her fingers. There was blood.

“So there is a limit.” She looked at the three pallets already inside her spatial storage.

She couldn't waste the space on bulky things she could easily keep inside the warehouse.

Food could stay here. Water could stay here. Fuel could stay here. The spatial storage needed to be saved for things she absolutely couldn't afford to lose.

Weapons. Medicine. Anything she needed to move instantly if a stronghold fell. Amelia wiped the blood from her nose with the back of her sleeve and stepped back.

Just then, her phone rang in her pocket. Ian's name appeared on the screen. Her heart skipped a beat.

She stared at his name glowing against the screen for a second before answering.

“Ian.”

“Amelia.” His voice was calm.

It was so familiar that for a moment she forgot he had died in her arms.

“My legal team just flagged a title transfer,” he said. “The Fourth Street warehouse is in my name.”

“Yes.”

“Why?” There was no anger in his voice. Just confusion.

“Since when do you care about that old warehouse? Your brother has been trying to claim that lot for his logistics expansion for six months.”

Amelia leaned against the wall. In her previous life, she would have immediately assumed he was questioning her motives.

She had spent years keeping Ian at a distance because her father had convinced her that Ian had only married her to get closer to Vivienne and the family business.

She had been wrong.

“It's a tax restructuring play,” she said. “It keeps the asset out of my family's immediate reach.”

“You don't do tax plays without consulting the family attorneys.”

“I know.”

“Then what's really happening?”

Amelia closed her eyes. She could still see him covered in blood. She could still hear him telling her to run.

She wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to tell him that the world would end in six months. That demons and fallen angels would appear.

That people would kill each other over water, and that he would die protecting her. But he would never believe her.

“I realized I haven't appreciated you enough, Ian.” Her voice was quieter now.

“I wanted you to have something that is entirely yours. No strings.”

Ian didn't answer immediately. "Amelia... are you sure you're okay?”

“I'm fine.” She looked around the warehouse. “I'll see you at home tonight.”

She ended the call before her voice could break. For a few seconds, she stood there without moving.

Then her phone rang again. Amelia answered.

“What's wrong?”

“Amelia, we have a problem.”

“What happened?”

“The pharmaceutical supplier in Ohio flagged your purchase order for the medical field kits and antibiotics. They canceled the transaction.”

Amelia frowned. “Why? The wire transfer went through.”

“The compliance department stopped it. They said the amount of broad-spectrum antibiotics you ordered is enough to supply a municipal hospital for a year.”

Elena took a breath. “They're refusing to ship without a verified federal medical license or an institutional audit. They want to know why a private individual needs that much medicine.”

Amelia was quiet. Money wouldn't solve everything. She had known there would be problems, but she hadn't expected suppliers to start blocking her this quickly.

If she kept placing large orders through normal channels, people would eventually start asking questions.

And once people started asking questions, she would have a bigger problem. She needed control over the supply chain.

“Do you remember the logistics company that handles most of the private warehouse deliveries in the city?”

Elena paused. “Apex Distribution?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Find out if the company is for sale.”

Elena went silent. “You're thinking of buying another company?”

Amelia looked across the warehouse at the pallets of food.

Her supplies had already started arriving. This was only the beginning.

“Something like that.”

“But they're in trouble,” Elena continued. “They spent a lot of money expanding their automated sorting system last year. It didn't work out, and now they're carrying a lot of debt. The owner is looking for an investor or a buyer before the company goes bankrupt.”

Amelia leaned her head against the concrete wall of the Fourth Street warehouse.

She remembered Apex from her first life. She didn't remember the company's financial problems, but she remembered its trucks.

After the sky turned black, those matte-black delivery vans had been everywhere. They moved through ruined streets carrying food, medicine, and other supplies that had become almost impossible to find.

“I don't want to invest,” Amelia said. “Get me their financial records.”

“All of them?” Elena was quiet for a moment. "Amelia, that could take some time.”

“Then start now.”

“What if you only need them as a logistics partner? We could lease warehouse space instead.”

“I don't want to lease anything.”

Amelia looked around the warehouse. "I want the company.”