Chapter Two: A Construction Site Funded with $2,600

Funds are released at inspection milestones, and your budget cannot drift.” She approved twenty thousand dollars. Lena did not celebrate. She moved waterproofing forward three days. The Value Sight showed where rain would cause damage, not when rain would come; weather reports and construction discipline supplied what magic could not. On day nineteen, Marcus appeared with a municipal inspector and a reporter streaming from her phone. “I heard a former employee altered a load-bearing wall without a general contractor’s license,” he said. “For public safety, I had to report it.” Neighbors crowded outside. A stop-work order would freeze Lena’s next loan payment and trigger penalties in the studio leases.