Chapter 2 - THE STREET DANIEL STOPPED SEEING
Vanessa recovered before Daniel did.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about.”
Walter gave her a tired look.
“You know Enderly Avenue?”
Daniel did.
He had grown up there.
Not in the renovated part with breweries and polished townhouses that now appeared in real-estate brochures.
The old part.
Small brick houses.
Chain-link fences.
Front porches close enough that neighbors could talk without leaving their chairs.
Walter still lived in the same two-bedroom bungalow where Daniel had done algebra at the kitchen table while his father worked night shifts cleaning hotel ballrooms.
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
“Our Riverline project is near Enderly.”
“It’s six blocks away.”
Walter handed him the envelope.
“Not anymore.”
Inside were photocopies of letters.
Purchase offers.
Follow-up notices.
Business cards from a land-acquisition company called Northcross Holdings.
Daniel recognized the name.
Reed Hospitality had hired Northcross to assemble parcels for the proposed Riverline luxury hotel and residential complex.
He flipped through the papers.
Walter’s address appeared on one.
Mrs. Alvarez from two houses down appeared on another.
Mr. Jenkins on the corner.
Nine properties.
The newest letter contained a sentence Daniel had never seen in company-approved materials:
DELAY MAY SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE YOUR AVAILABLE OPTIONS AS DEVELOPMENT ADVANCES.
“What does this mean?” he asked Vanessa.
“Standard acquisition language.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“You don’t personally review every vendor letter.”
“I review the templates.”
Walter quietly pushed another paper toward him.
It was a handwritten list.
Dates.
Times.
Phone calls.
Visits.
One elderly homeowner had been contacted sixteen times in eighteen days.
Daniel looked at his father.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
Walter’s expression hardened.
“I did.”
Daniel frowned.
“When?”
“February.”
Something unpleasant moved through Daniel’s stomach.
He remembered the conversation.
Barely.
Walter had called during a dinner with investors.
He said people were making offers on the street.
Daniel had told him property values were rising and that nobody could force him to sell.
Walter had tried to say something else.
Daniel had interrupted.
Vanessa handled acquisitions.
Trust her.
He remembered the sentence now.
Vanessa touched his arm.
“Daniel, tonight is the Children’s Health Foundation gala. We have four hundred guests arriving.”
He pulled his arm away.
“Did you approve these?”
“I approved a vendor doing its job.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Her eyes hardened.
“Do you want to interrogate me on the sidewalk?”
Walter reached for his cart.
Daniel stopped him.
“Dad, come upstairs with me.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“I’ve got another hour on shift.”
Vanessa stared.
“You actually work here?”
Walter looked at her.
“Tuesday and Thursday mornings.”
“But Daniel could—”
“Pay me to sit home?”
Walter shook his head.
“I did this work thirty-eight years. I like getting out of my house.”
He pushed the cart toward the service entrance.
Daniel watched him go.
Vanessa spoke quietly.
“You never told me your father was a janitor.”
Daniel turned.
The shame came fast because the answer was worse than he wanted it to be.
He had told Vanessa his father had “worked in hospitality.”
He had shown her one photograph of Walter in a suit at Daniel’s college graduation.
He had never once said the words janitor or maintenance worker.
Vanessa saw the realization in his face.
May you like
And for the first time that morning, she smiled slightly.
“You’re angry at me,” she said. “But apparently I’m not the only one who was embarrassed by him.”
