Chapter 7 Attic Rescue Battle

The historical designation victory should have protected Bookmark, but Emily knew Daniel Harrington well enough to expect retaliation. What she hadn't anticipated was how quickly it would come.

Three days after the hearing, Emily arrived at the bookstore to find a demolition notice taped to the door. "Emergency structural intervention required," it read, bearing the city engineer's stamp—and Daniel's signature as the authorizing developer.

"This is impossible," she muttered, tearing down the notice. "We have the historical designation."

"Which only protects against planned demolition," came Lucas's voice behind her. He'd been stopping by each morning to help with the window repairs. "Daniel's found a loophole—claiming imminent structural failure requires immediate intervention."

"But that's not true!" Emily protested. "Your grandmother's been monitoring the building for months."

"Truth isn't Daniel's strong suit," Lucas replied grimly. "Especially when his pride is wounded."

Inside, they found Maggie already awake, calmly brewing tea despite the commotion visible through the windows. A Meridian construction crew had assembled across the street, complete with excavators and demolition equipment.

"They can't do this," Emily insisted. "We have documentation, we have the committee's ruling—"

"They can't legally demolish the building," Maggie corrected, pouring three cups of tea. "But they can cause enough damage during their 'emergency assessment' to make restoration prohibitively expensive."

Lucas checked his phone. "My contacts at Meridian say Daniel convinced the board this is the only way to salvage the development project. They're starting in an hour."

Emily's mind raced. "We need to call the historical committee, get an emergency injunction—"

"Courts don't open for another three hours," Lucas pointed out.

"Then we stall them," Emily decided. She began making calls—to local preservationists, to journalists who had covered the hearing, to anyone who might help create a barrier between the demolition crew and Bookmark.

Within thirty minutes, a small crowd had gathered outside the bookstore. Not enough to stop determined workers with heavy machinery, but enough to draw attention. Lucas paced by the window, periodically checking his phone.

"Daniel's not backing down," he reported. "He's personally supervising the operation."

Emily was about to respond when Sofia burst through the door, breathless. "There's a family trapped in the building next door! The one that shares our east wall!"

"What?" Emily and Lucas exclaimed simultaneously.

"The Rodriguez family—their apartment is in the back section that connects to our building," Sofia explained. "The crew started preliminary work on that side, and now they can't get out. The stairwell's blocked by debris."

Lucas was already moving. "Where exactly are they?"

"Third floor, corner apartment," Sofia replied. "Mrs. Rodriguez and her two daughters."

"The buildings connect through the attic crawlspace," Emily remembered. "We could reach them from our side."

"Too dangerous," Maggie interjected. "That section of the attic hasn't been maintained in decades."

"We can't just leave them trapped," Emily argued.

Lucas was already heading for the stairs. "I'll go. I know the structural weak points to avoid."

"Not alone," Emily insisted, following him.

They climbed to the third floor, past the apartment Maggie had occupied, to a narrow door Emily had always assumed was a storage closet. Lucas produced a small pocketknife and worked the rusted lock until it gave way.

Behind the door lay a cramped, dusty crawlspace. Weak light filtered through vents in the eaves, illuminating decades of cobwebs and forgotten items.

"Stay close to the wall joists," Lucas instructed, leading the way. "Step exactly where I step."

They moved carefully through the space, ducking under exposed beams. Outside, they could hear the demolition crew's machinery growing louder.

"There," Lucas pointed to a section of wall ahead. "That should connect to their building."

As they approached, they heard muffled crying from the other side. Lucas pressed his ear to the wall. "Mrs. Rodriguez? Can you hear me?"

"Yes!" came a frightened voice. "Please help us! The stairs are blocked, and something's on fire downstairs!"

Lucas examined the wall. "This is just drywall between the buildings. We can break through." He looked around, spotting an old metal trunk. With Emily's help, he positioned it below a ceiling beam, then climbed up to brace himself.

"Stand back," he called to both sides of the wall. Then, with controlled force, he kicked at the drywall repeatedly until it began to crumble.

Within minutes, he had created an opening large enough for people to climb through. On the other side, a terrified woman and two young girls huddled together. Smoke was beginning to seep up from the floor below.

"Come through quickly," Lucas urged, reaching to help them.

The girls came first, Emily guiding them through the attic crawlspace toward safety. As Mrs. Rodriguez was climbing through, a tremendous crash shook the building. The demolition crew had begun their work in earnest.

"We need to hurry," Lucas said, supporting Mrs. Rodriguez as the floor beneath them trembled.

They had made it halfway back when another violent shake sent dust and debris raining down. A section of flooring ahead of them collapsed, creating a three-foot gap in their path.

"The children!" Mrs. Rodriguez cried, seeing her daughters on the other side of the gap with Emily.

"I'll get them to safety," Emily promised. "Lucas will bring you."

Lucas assessed the gap. "I can jump this. You go ahead with the girls."

Emily nodded, guiding the frightened children toward the exit. Behind her, she heard Lucas instructing Mrs. Rodriguez to climb onto his back.

Outside, the situation had escalated. Daniel stood directing the demolition crew, who were using an excavator to tear at the building's foundation despite the growing crowd of protesters.

Emily emerged with the girls just as a news van pulled up. "Those workers trapped a family inside!" she shouted, pointing to the demolition crew. "They started destroying the building with people still inside!"

The crowd's mood shifted instantly from protest to outrage. Several people rushed forward to confront the workers, while others helped Emily get the children to safety.

"Where's Lucas?" Sofia asked, taking one of the girls from Emily.

"Still inside with their mother," Emily replied, her eyes fixed on the building's entrance. "The floor was starting to collapse."

The excavator had stopped moving, its operator clearly uncomfortable with the crowd's anger. Daniel was shouting into his phone, gesturing wildly.

Just as Emily was about to rush back inside, the bookstore's door burst open. Lucas emerged carrying Mrs. Rodriguez, who appeared to have twisted her ankle. His face was streaked with dust, a small cut bleeding on his forehead.

The crowd erupted in cheers as he brought her to safety. A paramedic who had arrived with the news crew immediately came forward to assist.

Daniel stormed over, his face contorted with rage. "This changes nothing! We have legal authorization—"

He never finished the sentence. Lucas's fist connected with his jaw, sending him sprawling onto the pavement.

"That was for endangering a family," Lucas said quietly, standing over him. "And for lying about structural assessments."

Two police officers who had arrived with the growing crowd stepped forward, but instead of arresting Lucas, they helped Daniel to his feet and began questioning him about the demolition order.

Emily rushed to Lucas's side. "Are you hurt?"

"Nothing serious," he assured her, though he was holding his side in a way that suggested otherwise.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Emily asked, nodding toward Daniel, who was now being escorted to a police car.

"Boxing gym," Lucas replied with a slight smile. "Therapy for angry teenagers with father issues."

The crowd around them had swelled, with neighbors bringing water and blankets for the Rodriguez family. Someone had set up a livestream, broadcasting the scene to social media.

Emily suddenly had an idea. "Sofia, where's the old film projector from the window display?"

"In the storage room, why?"

"Get it," Emily instructed. "And the reels of Casablanca."

Within minutes, Sofia had retrieved the vintage projector. Emily positioned it on the bookstore's front steps, aiming it at the blank wall of the neighboring building.

"What are you doing?" Lucas asked.

"Creating a distraction," Emily replied, threading the film. "And making a point."

As dusk fell, the projector flickered to life, casting the opening scenes of Casablanca onto the building's facade. The crowd fell silent, then began to settle in, sitting on the street that had been blocked off by police.

"If they want to destroy this neighborhood," Emily announced loudly, "they'll have to go through all of us first."

People from nearby apartments brought out chairs. Someone ordered pizzas. What had begun as a confrontation transformed into an impromptu community movie night, with Bookmark at its center.

By the time Humphrey Bogart was saying "Here's looking at you, kid," the demolition crew had packed up their equipment and left. The police had taken statements from witnesses and the Rodriguez family, and Daniel had been escorted away for questioning about the falsified emergency order.

Lucas found Emily sitting on the bookstore steps, watching the film play across the building.

"That was brilliant," he said, easing himself down beside her with a slight wince.

"You're hurt," Emily observed, noticing how carefully he moved.

"Just some bruised ribs. Nothing broken."

Emily studied him in the flickering light from the projector. "You could have been killed in there."

"So could you," he countered. "Yet you went in without hesitation."

"The building matters," Emily said simply. "But the people inside it matter more."

Lucas nodded, understanding in his eyes. They sat in companionable silence, watching the film and the community it had temporarily united.

Later, after the crowd had dispersed and the Rodriguez family had been settled in a hotel paid for by the historical society, Emily found Lucas in the bookstore's back room, applying antiseptic to the cut on his forehead.

"Let me help," she offered, taking the cotton pad from his hand.

As she gently cleaned the wound, her fingers brushed against the edge of his old burn scar, partially visible beneath his collar. Lucas stiffened slightly at the contact.

"Does it still hurt?" Emily asked softly.

"Not physically," he admitted.

Carefully, Emily moved her fingers along the edge of the scar tissue. "May I?"

After a moment's hesitation, Lucas nodded, unbuttoning his shirt just enough to reveal the extent of the burn—a web of healed tissue extending from his collarbone across his shoulder.

Emily traced the patterns with gentle fingertips. "It's like a map," she said. "Of everything you've survived."

"Most people find it repulsive," Lucas said quietly.

"Then most people are idiots," Emily replied. "This is the bravest map I've ever seen."

Their eyes met, and in that moment, something shifted between them—a final wall crumbling away.

"Emily," Lucas began, his voice low.

"I know," she whispered, leaning forward to press her lips gently against his scar. "Me too."

Outside, the last scenes of Casablanca played against the building's facade, as inside Bookmark, two people who had been circling each other for years finally found their way home.