Free The Stars Shine Down by Sidney Sheldon

despairingly. “It’s over.”
    “Are we going to let him get away with this?”
    “Hell, no. What have you got left—three weeks?”
    Lara shook her head. “Less. Two and a half weeks.”
    The man turned to the others. “Let’s go down and take a look at that building.”
    “What good will…?”
    “We’ll see.”
    Soon half a dozen boarders were standing at the building site, carefully inspecting it.
    “The plumbing hasn’t been put in,” one of the men said.
    “Nor the electricity.”
    They stood there, shivering in the freezing December wind, discussing what still remained to be done.
    One of the men turned to Lara. “Your banker’s a tricky fellow. He’s had the building almost finished so that he wouldn’t have much to do when your contract was up.” He turned to the others. “I would say that this could be finished in two and a half weeks.”
    There was a chorus of agreement.
    Lara was bewildered. “You don’t understand. The workmen won’t come.”
    “Look, lassie, in your boardinghouse you’ve got plumbers and carpenters and electricians, and we’ve got lots of friends in town who can handle the rest.”
    “I don’t have any money to pay you,” Lara said. “Mr. MacAllister won’t give me…”
    “It will be our Christmas gift to you.”
    What happened after that was incredible. Word quickly spread around Glace Bay of what was happening. Construction workers on other buildings came to take a look at Lara’s property. Half of them were there because they liked Lara, and the other half because they had had dealings with Sean MacAllister and hated him.
    “Let’s fix the bastard,” they said.
    They dropped by to lend a hand after work, working past midnight and on Saturdays and Sundays, and the sound of construction began again, filling the air with a joyful noise. Beating the deadline became a challenge, and the building was soon swarming with carpenters and electricians and plumbers, all eager to pitch in. When Sean MacAllister heard what was happening, he rushed over to the site.
    He stood there, stunned. “What’s going on?” he demanded. “Those aren’t my workmen.”
    “They’re mine,” Lara said defiantly. “There’s nothing in the contract that says I can’t use my own men.”
    “Well, I…” MacAllister sputtered. “That building had better be up to specifications.”
    “It will be,” Lara assured him.
    The day before New Year’s Eve the building was completed. It stood proud against the sky, solid and strong, and it was the most beautiful thing Lara had ever seen. She stood there staring at it, dazed.
    “It’s all yours,” one of the workmen said proudly. “Are we going to have a party or what?”
    That night it seemed that the whole town of Glace Bay celebrated Lara Cameron’s first building.
    It was the beginning.
    There was no stopping Lara after that. Her mind was brimming with ideas.
    “Your new employees are going to need places to live in Glace Bay,” she told Charles Cohn. “I’d like to build houses for them. Are you interested?”
    He nodded. “I’m very interested.”
    Lara went to see a banker in Sydney and borrowed enough money on her building to finance the new project.
    When the houses were finished, Lara said to Charles Cohn, “Do you know what else this town needs, Charles? Cabins to accommodate the summer tourists who come here to fish. I know a wonderful place near the bay where I could build…”
    Charles Cohn became Lara’s unofficial financial adviser, and during the next three years Lara built an office building, half a dozen seashore cottages, and a shopping mall. The banks in Sydney and Halifax were happy to loan her money.
    Two years later, when Lara sold out her real estate holdings, she had a certified check for three million dollars. She was twenty-one years old.
    The following day she said good-bye to Glace Bay and left for Chicago.

Chapter Seven
    C hicago was a revelation. Halifax had been the largest city Lara had