Chapter 110

Madison

I spent Friday night buried in real estate books instead of buried under Alexander Knight. Progress, I suppose.

“Understanding Commercial Property Development” stared back at me from my coffee table, mocking me with its heft and academic tone. I’d made it through twenty pages before my eyes glazed over. The stack of books Alexander had given me loomed like a paper Tower of Babel.

“Okay, Madison,” I muttered, cracking open the book again. “You can memorize marketing strategies and quarterly projections. You can handle a little real estate jargon.”

Three hours and one cup of coffee later, I’d filled half a notebook with terms I needed to Google: cap rates, NOI calculations, and tenant improvement allowances. My brain felt like it was trying to learn Mandarin overnight.

I fell asleep with “Commercial Real Estate Finance Fundamentals” open on my chest, dreaming of buildings that kept changing shape every time I tried to appraise them.