Charismatic Shoemaker Lloyd

Chapter 1

Benton’s hammer struck the nail with steady precision.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The sound echoed softly through the cramped workshop. Each strike was measured, deliberate. He worked the way he always did—quietly, carefully, as if the wrong movement might shatter something fragile.

The air smelled of leather and glue, oil and dust ground into the floorboards by years of labor. Outside, the quarter buzzed with life—vendors shouting, footsteps scraping past—but inside the workshop, Benton had carved out a small pocket of control.

Here, his hands mattered.

The quarter door creaked open.

The rhythm broke.

Benton looked up as a shadow fell across the doorway.

An old man stood there, tall and immaculately dressed, his tailored grey suit untouched by the grime coating everything else in the quarter. The contrast was jarring—almost violent. He didn’t belong here. The space seemed to shrink around him.

Mr. Tyson.

Benton straightened at once, wiping his palms on his trousers. His heart stumbled, then raced to catch up.

“Mr. Tyson,” he said quickly. “I was just about to head out with the sketches.”

Tyson stepped inside without acknowledging the workshop, the tools, or the half-finished shoes on the bench. His polished shoes avoided the darker patches on the floor with practiced ease. His eyes swept the room once—cold, dismissive, before settling on Benton as if he were a minor inconvenience that had followed him indoors.

“Put the hammer down,” Tyson said flatly. “Harris will be taking the shoes to the company.”

The words hovered in the air, detached from meaning.

Benton blinked.

His grip loosened.

The hammer slipped from his fingers and hit the floor with a dull thud that echoed far too loudly in the small space.

“No,” Benton said. The word escaped before he could stop it. “That’s not right. I worked on those designs for months. You said I’d present them.”

Tyson’s lips curved, not into a smile, but something close to amusement. He stepped closer, his presence pressing into Benton’s space.

“Present?” Tyson let out a short, dry laugh. “You really thought this was your moment?”

Benton’s gaze drifted to the chair in the corner. Draped over it was his only decent suit, ironed thin from overuse. He had pressed it that morning with care, imagining himself standing beside Harris—not equal, perhaps, but visible.

Something had changed. He could feel it, the way you felt a storm before the sky darkened.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Tyson said. “Tell me, what did you really contribute, aside from leeching off my family?”

Benton’s hands curled into fists. His nails bit into his palms, grounding him.

He had grown up with nothing but those hands. On the streets, fixing torn soles for spare change. Learning early that silence kept you alive. When the Tysons took him in and offered him a roof, a marriage, a chance, he had believed he’d escaped that life.

Instead, he had traded one form of survival for another.

“That’s not fair,” Benton said. His voice came out hoarse, but steady. “You stole my work.”

The leather sofa creaked softly.

Margaret Tyson sat there, legs crossed, swirling wine in a crystal glass as if this were entertainment arranged for her benefit. Her eyes flicked toward Benton briefly before drifting away again.

Beside her, Harris lounged with careless confidence, his suit flawless, his posture relaxed. He looked like someone already certain of victory.

“Stole?” Tyson echoed mildly. “Don’t be dramatic. We refined it. Made it marketable. You should be thanking us.”

Harris stood, straightening his cuffs as he crossed the room. His polished shoes clicked against the cracked floorboards, each step deliberate. He picked up Benton’s sketchbook, flipping through it with lazy interest.

“Relax, Benny,” he smirked. “They’re not bad. For someone like you.”

Benton’s chest tightened. “This is plagiarism.”

“You don’t own anything,” Tyson replied smoothly. “Not the designs. Not the process. Not even your place here.”

The words landed cleanly. Precisely.

Something inside Benton shifted—not anger yet, but understanding.

“You think I’m charity,” he said quietly.

Margaret finally looked at him, her lips curling faintly. “You married up, Benton. Don’t forget that.”

Benton swallowed.

“I never asked for charity,” he said. “I asked for a chance. A fair one.”

Tyson tilted his head, studying him like a flaw in an otherwise perfect product.

“And that’s where you failed,” he said calmly. “Fairness doesn’t exist in business. Only leverage. And you have none.”

Benton stepped forward and slammed the sketchbook onto the table. The impact rattled the wine glasses.

“They’re mine.”

For the first time, the room went still.

Tyson didn’t flinch.

He smiled.

“And what are you going to do about it?” he dared.

The silence that followed answered the question for Benton.

Tyson turned away. “This is settled. You’ll pick Avery up from the airport and take her to the company. Harris has investors to impress.”

The name hit harder than the insult.

Avery.

Benton hadn’t seen her in months not since she left for her studies abroad. She used to sit beside him in this workshop, watching him sketch, offering quiet encouragement that felt genuine.

That hope curdled now, sharp and sour.

“She knows?” Benton asked.

No one answered.

“Avery knows?” he asked again, eyes red.

Margaret’s expression was almost pitying. “Avery is one of us, Benton. She understands where her loyalty lies.”

Harris grabbed the keys from the table.

Benton rushed after them, hoping there would be a reconsideration. But Harris tossed Benton a mocking salute as he slid into the driver’s seat of Tyson’s sleek vehicle.

The car engine roared to life.

“Don’t cry too hard, errand boy,” Harris said. “I’ll send you the launch headline.”

The tires crunched over gravel as the car sped away, carrying Benton’s designs, his future, everything except him.

The workshop fell silent.

Benton didn’t move. The keys in his pocket pressed into his thigh like iron as he turned toward the empty space.

Then his phone vibrated.

Once.

He looked down.

Avery.

His jaw tightened.

Just landed.

Don’t make a scene when you pick me up.

For a moment, the room tilted.

She knew.

Or worse—she didn’t care.

Benton locked the workshop door, slow and deliberate, and stepped outside the gate to throw out the trash.

Then

Laughter.

Low. Mocking.

“Look at him,” a voice sneered from across the street. “The Tyson dog got thrown out.”

Benton turned.

A man stood near the corner, half-hidden in shadow. Not laughing. Watching.

Their eyes met.

The man lifted his phone, snapped a picture, and walked away.

Benton’s chest tightened.

Tonight hadn’t just cost him his work.

It had put him on someone else’s radar.