He was precise about it, surgical almost.
He obtained the names of two customers on Colleen's waiting list, the dining-table family in Roanoke and the headboard commission from the Shenandoah Valley.
He contacted them directly, which required effort since Colleen didn't publish her client list, meaning Wade had sources she hadn't accounted for.
He offered each of them comparable pieces from his mill's custom line at sixty percent below Colleen's quoted price, built from kiln-dried walnut, delivered within two weeks.
The Roanoke family held firm.
They'd spoken with Colleen three times by then, visited the shop once, touched the figured board she'd set aside for their table.
They understood what they were waiting for and understood it couldn't come from a production mill.
They declined Wade's offer politely, which was more politeness than it deserved.
The Shenandoah woman took Wade's deal.
She called Colleen on a Tuesday to cancel, her voice carrying the particular guilt of someone who knows they've made a decision for the wrong reasons but can't afford the right ones.
She needed the headboard before her daughter's wedding in April. Colleen's timeline would have delivered it in August.
Wade promised two weeks.
The math was simple, even if the values it expressed were not.
Colleen absorbed the loss without visible reaction.
She hung up the phone, stood in the kitchen for a moment, then walked out to the shop, picked up a hand plane, and began working a board she'd been shaping for the Roanoke table.
The rhythm of the blade against figured grain filled the building with a sound like breathing.
Steady. Measured.
The sound of someone who has decided to keep going without needing to explain why.
But Wade wasn't finished.
A week after the Shenandoah cancellation, a letter arrived from the county building inspector's office.
A formal complaint had been filed alleging that the Ser property on Keller Road was operating a commercial manufacturing facility without proper zoning compliance.
The complaint cited noise ordinances, waste-disposal concerns, and commercial vehicle traffic on a residential road.
It requested a site inspection within thirty days, during which the shop would need to demonstrate compliance or cease operations pending review.
The complaint was unsigned, which meant it could have come from anyone.