Chapter 1 - THE RIDE TO THIRTY-THREE
Emily Carter was halfway through rehearsing the safest answer she knew—“My greatest strength is staying calm under pressure”—when the elevator jolted.
Her folder slipped from her hands.
Resumes, recommendation letters, and one pale pink eviction notice scattered across the polished floor.
Before Emily could grab it, the quiet man standing beside her picked up the notice.
FINAL NOTICE.
$2,184 DUE IN SIX DAYS.
Mortified, Emily snatched it back.
“That’s not part of my interview packet.”
“I assumed not,” he said.
He was perhaps forty, dressed in an expensive charcoal suit but wearing no visible badge. He carried himself with the quiet confidence of someone who never needed to announce his importance.
Emily decided he was probably an accountant.
Maybe legal.
Hopefully someone who would forget her immediately.
The elevator continued through the forty-three-story Chicago tower while Emily tried to rebuild what remained of her confidence.
She was wearing her only decent white blouse. A small grape-jelly stain marked one cuff, courtesy of her seven-year-old daughter, Lily, who had hugged her before school.
Inside Emily’s folder rested another reminder of Lily.
A piece of notebook paper covered in purple crayon.
Mommy, you can do anything.
Emily needed to believe it.
Three months of rejection had drained nearly everything else.
She had five years of accounts payable experience, strong references from former coworkers, and a stubborn habit of noticing numbers that didn’t make sense.
Yet every interview seemed to end the same way.
Polite smiles.
Promises to call.
Silence.
Now her rent was overdue.
The landlord had given her six days.
When several employees entered on the twenty-sixth floor, Emily became painfully aware of her thrift-store blazer and worn shoes. One woman glanced down at them.
Emily pretended not to notice.
By thirty-one, only she and the quiet man remained.
“You’re going to thirty-three?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Interview?”
“Administrative accounting coordinator.”
“And you want the job?”
Emily gave an exhausted laugh.
“I need the job.”
His expression changed slightly.
“Those aren’t the same thing.”
Realizing how desperate she sounded, Emily straightened.
“I mean I want it. Very much.”
The man studied her without judgment.
Emily looked toward the elevator doors and remembered Lily’s question over breakfast.
What happens if you don’t get it?
Emily hadn’t answered.
Because the truth was something no seven-year-old should have to carry.
If she didn’t get this job, she and Lily might soon be packing everything they owned into borrowed boxes.
The elevator chimed.
May you like
Thirty-three.
And Emily had no idea the stranger beside her was about to become the most powerful person in the room.
