“What strategy?”
“She wanted to negotiate directly with Nathaniel Graves.”
Claire looked at the papers.
“But she never got the chance.”
“No.”
Miriam folded her hands.
“After she died, I contacted the temporary tenant committee. By then several families had moved, the refunded deposits had been spent, and nobody wanted to begin an expensive legal fight.”
Claire lowered her head.
“I didn’t even know.”
“You were nineteen. You were grieving. Your mother specifically told me not to burden you with the case unless the building became threatened again.”
Claire looked up sharply.
“Threatened again.”
Miriam nodded toward the eviction notice on the table.
“Which, apparently, it has.”
The documents did not produce a miracle.
They produced work.
A great deal of it.
Sofia spent days comparing title records.
Nathaniel opened Graves Energy’s archives to an independent review.
Caleb emailed copies of old correspondence he had kept.
Mr. Harris and Mrs. Alvarez began contacting former tenants.
