Chapter 2 - The Terms of Engagement
Dawn broke over Chicago in shades of bruised purple and slate gray, casting long, dreary shadows across the asphalt outside Nadia’s window. She hadn't slept a wink. The cream paper still lay on the kitchen counter, its black ink mocking her exhaustion.
At 6:30 AM, her phone buzzed against the nightstand—a text message from the head nurse at St. Jude’s reminding her of the double shift starting at seven.
Nadia stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Dark circles bruised the skin beneath her eyes, and her hair was pulled back in a frantic, messy bun. She splashed cold water on her face, took a deep, shuddering breath, and made her decision. She couldn't let Maya get dragged back to Chicago in a body bag.
When she walked out of her apartment twenty minutes later, she didn't leave the contract unsigned. She had signed her name at the bottom in jagged, furious handwriting, sealing her fate before the sun had even cleared the skyline.
The hospital was its usual chaotic purgatory. For twelve hours, Nadia moved through a blur of sterile hallways, beep monitors, charting, and post-op care. She assisted in three surgeries, her hands steady with a scalpel while her mind screamed internally at the mathematical impossibility of the debt she now owned. One hundred and eighty thousand dollars. At her current salary, after taxes and rent, she couldn't even dent the accumulating interest.
It was 7:15 PM when she finally clocked out, dragging her feet toward the locker room to change into her street clothes.
"Hey, Reyes," muttered Sarah, a fellow nurse, as she tossed her lab coat into a hamper. "You look like you got run over by a freight train. You pulling another double tonight?"
"No," Nadia lied, forcing a tight smile. "Just a long week."
"Well, get some sleep. Oh, by the way—some guy dropped this off at the front desk for you about an hour ago. Said it was urgent."
Sarah handed over a small, unsealed manila envelope.
Nadia’s heart skipped a beat. She ripped it open in the locker room aisle. Inside was a single business card embossed with silver lettering: Voss Enterprises — Real Estate & Development, along with a handwritten address in the River North district and a time: Friday, 8:00 AM. Below it was a key fob and a slip of paper with a new apartment address on Lake Shore Drive.
Your current lease is terminated, the note read in crisp, clean cursive. You can't work effectively from a tenement. Move tonight.
May you like
Nadia stared at the key fob. They had already packed her things? Or were packing them right now?
Panic flared in her chest, but it was quickly replaced by a cold, numbing realization. She wasn't just a debtor anymore. She was property under management.
