Chapter 28 - Seventy-Two Hours
Rosa answered her door wearing work trousers and a sweater with one cuff unraveling.
Mateo stood behind her, holding a plastic dinosaur by the tail.
“Are we moving?” he asked before any of us could speak.
Rosa closed her eyes.
“Not tonight, baby.”
Mara crouched enough to meet his gaze.
“We’re helping your grandmother understand some papers.”
He looked at the folder in her hand.
“Papers keep making her mad.”
“They do that sometimes.”
He considered this, then went back to the living room.
It was almost ten.
Through the wall, someone’s television played a cooking show. Pipes knocked overhead. Outside, a truck reversed with a series of sharp electronic beeps.
Everything sounded ordinary.
Rosa’s hands were shaking.
“I know the letter looks wrong,” she said. “But if I ignore it and something happens, they’ll say I should have listened.”
“That’s why we’re verifying it,” Mara said.
She had already reached the emergency contact provided by the city’s building department and sent the notice to the appropriate office.
The reference number did not match Maple Court.
That did not answer whether the apartment had genuine hazards.
The leak above Mateo’s bed was real.
So was the failed heating system in another building.
The next morning, properly identified inspectors arrived.
Rosa watched them examine the ceiling.
One of them asked for access to the roof.
The property manager was suddenly difficult to locate.
Priya had gathered residents downstairs with copies of their maintenance requests.
Nobody had to rely on memory.
Dates.
Photographs.
Emails.
Messages marked received and never answered.
The inspection identified serious repair needs, including problems that required immediate attention in two units.
But Rosa’s apartment had not been declared uninhabitable by the city, and the seventy-two-hour notice had not come from it.
Mara made certain the distinction was documented.
Hawthorne’s counsel called before lunch.
They denied authorizing misleading notices and said Civic Transition was a vendor engaged by the seller.
Cross’s counsel responded that Hawthorne had already been coordinating directly with the vendor under its early-access rights.
Each side had found a convenient place to point.
June called me privately.
“I’ve authorized emergency repairs that can’t wait. Independent contractors. We’re also asking residents what access arrangements work for them.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me for maintaining buildings we own.”
I leaned back in my chair.
“Fair.”
Meanwhile, Damian attended a meeting with Rebecca about his continuing leave.
He came home with a tired face and no immediate explanation.
I gave him space.
After Ethan went upstairs, he told me the board was discussing whether he should ever return as chief executive.
“What do you want?” I asked.
He looked toward the dark garden.
“I thought I wanted my job back.”
“And now?”
“I don’t know whether I want the work or the proof that I haven’t lost it forever.”
We sat with that.
Then he asked about Rosa.
I told him what the inspectors had found.
His jaw tightened.
“We owned those buildings while roofs leaked.”
“Yes.”
“Before Kessler. Before this agreement.”
“Yes.”
He rubbed his hands together.
“I keep finding new places where not looking was treated as normal.”
I moved closer.
“Then keep looking.”
The next day, Mateo’s bedroom ceiling was opened for repair.
Rosa arranged for him to stay with his mother while the work was completed. The company offered temporary accommodation for affected residents, coordinated through an independent contact.
Several declined.
After months of pressure to leave, they were afraid accepting a hotel room would become another claim that they had abandoned their homes.
I could not blame them.
Mara insisted that any temporary relocation agreement clearly preserve their occupancy rights and specify a return process.
Even then, Henry refused to pack.
Priya persuaded him only after he chose the person who would hold a spare key.
That afternoon, the first repair contractor called June.
Someone had removed the roof maintenance records from the property office.
The office manager said they had been collected for scanning.
By whom?
Civic Transition.
When?
The morning after our visit.
Then June received a message from Hawthorne.
They intended to enforce the sale agreement.
Any attempt to delay closing, they warned, would expose Cross to significant damages.
Attached was a page none of us had seen before.
May you like
It contained a guarantee of the clearance schedule.
And beneath that guarantee was Damian’s signature.
