Chapter 1 - Three Days Until Friday
Three days before Ruby entered Vale Meridian Tower, she woke to the sound of someone pounding on the apartment door.
She opened her eyes beneath a ceiling stained by rainwater. The bedroom was so small that her mattress touched the wall on one side and an old dresser on the other.
The pounding came again.
“Management inspection!”
Ruby climbed out of bed and hurried into the living room.
June Bennett was already standing near the door.
To Ruby, June was Mom. She had packed every school lunch Ruby could remember, sat beside her during every fever, and taught her never to keep money that belonged to someone else.
That morning, however, June looked different.
Her hands trembled as she buttoned her coat.
“Stay behind me,” she told Ruby.
June opened the door only a few inches.
A tall man in a dark overcoat stood in the hallway. Behind him were two workers carrying empty cardboard boxes.
“June Bennett?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He pushed an envelope through the opening.
“You have until Friday to vacate.”
June stared at the red notice.
“There must be a mistake. Our lease is valid for another year.”
“Your lease was terminated.”
“By whom?”
“Hawthorne Residential Holdings.”
“I’ve never heard of that company.”
The man smiled without warmth.
“They’ve heard of you.”
Ruby watched June’s expression change.
For one second, fear replaced confusion.
The man saw it too.
“Friday,” he repeated. “At six in the evening, the locks will be changed. Anything left inside becomes the property of the owner.”
“You cannot do that,” June said.
“We can, and we will.”
He turned away.
Before he reached the stairs, he looked over his shoulder at Ruby.
His gaze stayed on her pink backpack.
“Make sure the girl takes everything important.”
The workers followed him down the corridor.
June shut the door and locked it.
Then she locked the second chain.
“Mom,” Ruby whispered, “where are we going to live?”
June looked around the apartment.
For years, she had worked double shifts at a neighborhood bakery to keep this place. The furniture had been bought secondhand. The refrigerator made strange noises every night. The radiator only worked when someone kicked the bottom panel.
But it was home.
“We are not leaving,” June said.
“Can they really change the locks?”
“Not if I find out who sent them.”
She carried the eviction notice to the kitchen table and examined every line.
Ruby followed.
At the bottom of the page was a signature.
Silas Mercer, Director of Property Recovery.
June covered the name with her hand.
Ruby noticed.
“Do you know him?”
“No.”
“You looked like you did.”
June folded the paper quickly.
“Get ready for school.”
Ruby did not move.
June had taught her that lying was wrong, but Ruby had learned that adults often changed the name of a lie when they were afraid. They called it protection. They called it timing. They called it something children would understand later.
Ruby looked toward a framed photograph on the shelf.
It showed June holding her as a baby.
The photograph had been cut along one edge.
Someone else had once been standing beside them.
Ruby had asked about the missing person before.
June always gave the same answer.
“The picture was damaged.”
That morning, Ruby noticed something she had never seen before.
Behind the frame was the corner of another photograph.
June followed her gaze and immediately crossed the room.
“We’re late,” she said.
She placed both photographs inside a drawer and locked it.
At school, Ruby could not concentrate.
Her teacher talked about fractions while Ruby imagined their furniture being thrown onto the sidewalk. At lunch, she saved half her sandwich in case food became difficult to find after Friday.
When the final bell rang, she walked home instead of taking the bus. The bus cost two dollars, and two dollars suddenly seemed important.
Three blocks from the apartment, she saw a black car stopped beside the curb.
A man in an expensive coat stood near it, speaking sharply into his phone.
“You told me the Hawthorne file was closed,” he said.
Ruby slowed down.
The man turned away from her.
“I don’t care what Silas says. No eviction proceeds without my approval.”
The driver opened the rear door.
The man entered the car, still arguing.
As the vehicle pulled away, something black lay on the sidewalk where he had been standing.
Ruby walked over.
It was a leather wallet.
Inside was more cash than she had ever seen.
There were bank cards, a driver’s license, and a photograph of a young woman with gray-green eyes.
Ruby stared at the photograph.
The woman looked strangely familiar.
Then Ruby read the name on the driver’s license.
Nathaniel Alexander Vale.
She knew that name.
Everyone in the city did.
Vale Meridian Tower stood seven blocks away.
Ruby closed the wallet.
She could have given it to the police.
She could have taken it home.
Instead, she adjusted her pink backpack and began walking toward the tallest building in the city.
She did not see the black car return to the corner behind her.
She did not see the tall man from her apartment building step out of an alley.
May you like
And she did not hear him make a call.
“The girl has Vale’s wallet,” he said. “She’s heading toward the tower.”
