Chapter 1 - THE SEVEN GUARDS
My mother worked seventy-seven days without being paid while her boss drove a new Porsche and kept telling her to wait “one more week.”
My name is Rory Carter.
I was four and a half, and the half mattered.
The night before, I heard Mom crying on the phone.
“Please, Mr. Sterling. I’ve waited eleven weeks. My daughter needs groceries.”
Her boss answered coldly.
“You should be grateful you still have a job.”
The next day, Mom brought me to Sterling’s Bistro because our babysitter canceled. She told me to color inside the office and not wander.
But at lunchtime, I folded her work log into my red hoodie and slipped into the dining room.
The back table belonged to Vincent Kane.
Even children in Chicago knew his name.
Seven armed men stood between him and me.
I walked past every one.
Three reached inside their jackets. Two jumped from their chairs.
Vincent raised one finger.
Everyone stopped.
He looked down at me.
“Are you speaking to me?”
“Yes.”
“How old are you?”
“Four and a half.”
“And does your mother know you’re here?”
“She thinks I’m in the bathroom.”
One man almost laughed.
Vincent silenced him with a glance.
I placed Mom’s work log on the table.
Every shift was written there.
Every double shift.
Every late closing.
At the bottom, she had written:
77 days unpaid.
Total owed: $5,430.30.
Vincent noticed the purple stars beside several dates.
“What do those mean?”
I pointed to the first one.
“They’re the nights we didn’t eat dinner.”
The entire restaurant went silent.
Across the room, David Sterling stood beside the bar, spinning the keys to his new Porsche around one finger.
Vincent slowly rose.
David finally looked toward us.
The keys slipped from his hand.
Then Vincent asked him one quiet question:
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“Why is a four-year-old bringing me records your accountant should have reported weeks ago?”
Continue to Part 2 to discover why David was more afraid of the work log than of Vincent Kane.
