Chapter 1: The Buyout Bombshell

The trailer park on the edge of Joliet looked the same as ever—kids pedaling bikes between rusted mailboxes, the hum of a lawnmower somewhere in the distance—but everything was about to change.

My fiancée, Natalie Harper, was about to go from a broke, sweet girl to a secret heiress, thanks to the redevelopment project sweeping through her neighborhood.

I was genuinely happy for her. Or at least, I thought I was.

But the way she looked at me lately had changed—suspicious, guarded, as if I was the one with the secret.

She snapped at me, her voice tight with stress: "What are you smiling about? This is my family’s business, not yours. And you know Derek’s been after me, right? His family’s getting a ton of condos. If you can’t show me you’re serious—like, really serious—don’t even talk about marriage."

I was floored. The redevelopment project? That was my dad’s doing.

Later, my dad told me, "Don’t let her feel insecure. When we buy out her family’s place, just treat it as her engagement gift."

……

After the news broke about the redevelopment, I really was happy for Natalie. I imagined her bursting through the door, eyes shining with excitement: "Caleb, I’m finally going to have my own place!"

I’d probably tease her back: "So if we ever argue and you storm out, I’ll know exactly where to find you."

She’d glare, maybe throw a pillow at me: "You really want to test me, huh?"

But when I tried to reach her, all I got was the hollow dial tone—no answer. My texts sat unread. When I called her office, a coworker told me she’d taken two days off.

Panic gnawed at my chest. Was she okay? Did she faint from happiness? I rushed to her place.

Before I even knocked, voices drifted through the thin walls:

"Honey, you need to be smarter now. I used to think Caleb was alright, but things are different for us now. With the size of our trailer, we’ll get at least three condos from the buyout. Do you know what that means? How do you think folks in Chicago got rich? All from these buyouts."

It was Natalie’s mom. Her words made my skin crawl. So now that they were getting money, I was suddenly not good enough?

But it got worse:

"With four condos, we’ve got options. Even if you marry into a wealthy family, we won’t have to worry."

"And you know Derek Evans’ family, right? They’ve lived here forever. His grandpa, grandma, great-aunt, and great-uncle’s trailers are all his. His Aunt Linda, Uncle Mike, Cousin Jeff, and Aunt Sarah—the whole family’s getting at least twenty condos. If you go with him, you’ll be set for life."

Derek Evans—big, rough, acne-scarred, always smelling like sweat—compared to me?

"Enough, Derek barely finished high school. He can hardly spell his own name. You want me to be with him?"

"What’s the use of being educated? Does that get you a condo? Caleb needs a mortgage to buy a house, and you might even have to help him out."

"Derek’s no good either. He looks like a bulldog. I feel sick just looking at him."

"Oh, sweetie, men are all the same in the dark. Give him money and a nice suit, and he’ll look handsome."

Hearing this, my heart went cold. I pressed my forehead to the cool aluminum siding, trying to steady my breathing as her mom’s words echoed in my head.

I’d always thought Natalie’s mom was simple, kind, warm. Now she sounded calculating—like someone I’d never met before.

As I stood there, fists clenched, I noticed a faded American flag sticker peeling on their mailbox—a reminder of how ordinary and unassuming their family had seemed. But this? This felt like a different world.

Luckily, I thought, Natalie isn’t like that.

But after a long wait, I never heard her stand up for me. In the end, she just murmured, her voice barely a whisper: "Alright, I know. Let me think about it."

Her fingers twisted the hem of her shirt. She wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes—not her mom’s, not mine. A cold, hollow ache settled in my chest, as if someone had sucked all the air out of the tiny porch.