Chapter 2 - The Name on the Eviction Notice
Emily snatched the file from Daniel.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel closed the apartment door behind them before answering.
“I don't know.”
“That's a terrible answer from the man whose company is throwing me out.”
Noah stood near the kitchen table, watching Daniel with open suspicion.
Daniel looked around the apartment.
The place was small but immaculate. Books occupied milk crates against one wall. A repaired lamp leaned beside the sofa. Two envelopes marked PAST DUE sat near the refrigerator.
He remembered Emily paying his bill.
Something twisted inside him.
“I didn't authorize this redevelopment.”
Emily laughed once.
“Your name is on the notice.”
“My company owns hundreds of properties.”
“So that makes it better?”
“No.”
Daniel met her eyes.
“It makes it possible somebody used my company without me knowing.”
Noah stepped forward.
“Rich people always seem to have somebody else to blame.”
“Noah,” Emily warned.
“He's evicting us.”
Daniel didn't defend himself.
The boy wasn't wrong about the appearance of it.
Instead Daniel opened the file again.
The photograph showed Emily leaving the restaurant three days earlier.
On another page were copies of her employment records.
Address.
Schedule.
Bank.
Family contact.
Noah.
Emily's anger vanished.
“Why does your company have this?”
“It shouldn't.”
“Who made the file?”
Daniel checked the metadata printed along the bottom.
M.P. ACQUISITIONS — EXECUTIVE REVIEW.
Approved by: M. Hale.
Marcus.
Daniel felt something inside him go still.
He had known Marcus for fourteen years.
They had built Mercer Capital together.
Marcus had been beside him when Daniel's mother died.
He had carried her coffin.
Emily saw his expression.
“You know that name.”
“My CFO.”
“Did he freeze your cards?”
“I don't know.”
“But you think he might have.”
Daniel folded the papers.
“I'm going to find out.”
Emily grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
He looked at her hand.
She released him.
“You don't get to disappear into some glass office and ‘find out’ while my brother and I have thirty days.”
“You won't be evicted.”
“You can't promise that.”
“I own the building.”
“That sentence is exactly why I don't trust you.”
Daniel almost argued.
Then he realized she had a point.
He took the eviction notice.
The document carried an electronic authorization code.
He recognized it.
Not his.
His father's.
Daniel stared at the numbers.
His father, Charles Mercer, had been dead for eleven years.
“What?” Emily asked.
Daniel showed her.
“That authorization belonged to my father.”
“And?”
“He's dead.”
Silence filled the kitchen.
Noah closed his textbook.
Daniel called his legal counsel.
This time his phone worked.
“Freeze every action involving this property,” he ordered. “No tenant moves. No demolition. No lease cancellations.”
Emily folded her arms.
“Temporary?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Until I know why somebody wants you gone.”
The words landed differently.
Emily glanced at the photograph.
Someone had been watching her before she ever helped Daniel.
That meant the restaurant encounter was coincidence.
Or it wasn't.
“Why me?”
Daniel had no answer.
His attorney spent the morning tracing the building purchase.
It had been acquired through a Mercer subsidiary six months earlier for nearly twice its market value.
The transaction had bypassed Daniel.
Marcus had approved it.
The redevelopment plans contained something stranger.
Only Emily's building was scheduled for demolition.
The adjoining structures had been purchased too, but they were staying.
At noon Daniel and Emily entered the basement.
The superintendent reluctantly unlocked a rusted utility door.
“Nothing down there but storage.”
Daniel switched on his phone flashlight.
Emily followed.
Dust covered old pipes and concrete.
Against the far wall stood a row of abandoned storage cages.
Emily stopped at number 4B.
“That’s our apartment.”
A metal tag hung from the cage.
CARTER.
Emily touched it.
“My mother lived in our apartment before I did.”
“For how long?”
“Twenty-six years.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Your mother never moved?”
“She couldn't afford to.”
They opened the cage.
Inside were old boxes.
Christmas decorations.
A broken fan.
Children's books.
Then Emily found a wooden case.
She recognized it immediately.
“My mother's.”
Inside were photographs, letters, and an old leather appointment book.
Daniel picked up one photograph.
A younger version of Emily's mother stood beside a man outside a construction site.
The man's face was partly turned.
But Daniel recognized him.
His father.
Charles Mercer.
Emily saw his reaction.
“No.”
Daniel turned the photograph over.
A date was written there.
Twenty-eight years earlier.
Below it:
CHARLES — DON'T LET THEM TAKE THE BUILDING.
Emily sank onto a box.
“My mother knew your father.”
Daniel flipped through the appointment book.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Charles M.
Then another.
Victor Hale.
Daniel frowned.
Marcus's father.
A page had been torn out near the end.
Emily searched the case.
“There's something missing.”
“How do you know?”
“My mother kept everything.”
A sound came from the stairwell.
Daniel switched off the flashlight.
Footsteps.
Someone was coming down.
Emily moved close to him.
The basement door opened.
A silhouette appeared.
Daniel stepped in front of Emily.
The stranger looked toward storage cage 4B.
Then the lights went out.
Emily heard running.
Daniel chased the sound.
By the time emergency lights flickered on, the stranger was gone.
So was the wooden case.
Only one photograph remained on the floor.
Emily picked it up.
Her mother was holding a baby.
On the back, in faded ink, were six words.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS, DANIEL MUST KNOW.
Emily looked up.
Daniel was staring at the same sentence.
Then his phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
YOU HAVE 24 HOURS.
A second message arrived.
ASK EMILY WHO HER FATHER WAS.
Emily went pale.
Daniel slowly turned toward her.
May you like
She opened her mouth.
Before she could speak, somebody knocked three times on the locked basement door.
