The Purge Five Years Ago

I did five years in prison, taking the fall for my company. The day I got out, a lone G-Wagon was waiting outside the iron gates. My boss's assistant cracked the window and tossed out an envelope with a single sentence. “Nina. Compliments of Mr. Price. Two hundred and fifty bucks.” “What’s this supposed to mean?” The assistant, Kevin, sneered. “The company’s about to ring the bell and go public. Mr. Price said, to keep things civil, this two-fifty is your bus fare. The farther you go, the better.” “Where is Victor? Where are the others?” “You really think the boss himself would come pick up an ex-con?” I scrolled through my social media feed. Pinned to the top was a photo of my boss on a yacht. Champagne, bikinis, and his fat, smiling face. The caption read: “The ship has cleared the storm. Grateful for shedding the dead weight five years ago.” I clutched the two hundred and fifty dollars and smiled, too. If you don’t want to be civil, then none of us will survive this. 1 The G-Wagon’s engine roared to life. Its tires spun, kicking up a spray of filthy water that splattered all over me. “Nina, the boss had one more message for you.” I brushed the mud from my clothes. “Spit it out.” “He said if you don’t keep your mouth shut, the mud on the ground will be your final resting place.” The window slid up. The taillights vanished down the road. When I finally made it back to my old apartment in the city’s tenement blocks, I froze on the third-floor landing. The familiar iron door was gone. In its place was a new security door, adorned with a festive sticker. I knocked for a long time, but no one answered. The neighbor across the hall, Mrs. Gable, peeked her head out. When she saw me, her jaw nearly hit the floor. “Nina? Is that you?” “Mrs. Gable, where’s my mom? What happened to our apartment?” She pulled me inside her apartment and locked the door, as if afraid of being seen. “Oh, you poor thing…” “Not six months after you went in, those men started coming.” “Every day, they were here. Splashing paint, leaving funeral wreaths, shouting through a megaphone that you were an embezzler.” “Your mother couldn’t take it. They told her you lost the company a fortune and she had to pay it back. They said if she didn’t, you’d be beaten to death in prison.” “So she sold the apartment?” My knuckles were white as I gripped her doorframe. “Sold it for nothing! They said it was to pay the debt, but those thugs took every last cent!” Mrs. Gable’s eyes were red with anger as she spoke. “Where is my mom now?” “She said she was going to rent a cheap place in the slums, to wait for you… I didn’t dare ask for the details.” Following Mrs. Gable’s vague directions, I made my way into the deepest, darkest corner of the slums. The air was thick with the stench of raw sewage. The door wasn’t locked. In fact, it wasn’t much of a door at all—just a rotting piece of plywood propped against the frame. I pushed it aside. The room was dark. An old woman was curled up on a filthy mattress she must have salvaged from the street. She was gnawing on half of a moldy bread roll. At the sound of my entry, she flinched violently, clutching the bread to her chest, her whole body trembling. “Don’t hit me… please, don’t hit me… I’m getting the money… I swear I am…” “Just please… don’t hurt my daughter…” I rushed forward and threw my arms around her. “Mom! It’s me! It’s Nina!” The body in my arms went rigid. She slowly lifted her head. Her left eye was a sunken pit, the eyeball shrunken and cloudy with a grayish-white film. “Who… who is it?” She reached out, her hand grasping at empty air. “It’s me, Mom. It’s Nina.” I took her hand and pressed it to my face, tears streaming down my cheeks. “Nina?” Her good eye twitched. Her hand fumbled across my face, from my forehead to my eyebrows, then down to my nose. When her fingers found the small mole on the bridge of my nose, she let out a gut-wrenching sob. “It’s really you… It’s really my daughter…” “Mom, what happened to your eye? And your leg…” “It’s nothing… I’m fine…” She tried to hide her leg under the thin blanket. I pulled it back. A grotesque lump protruded from her shinbone. “Victor Price did this, didn’t he?” I wasn’t stupid. My mother was silent for a long time before she finally spoke, her voice trembling. “Two years ago, I went to find them, to ask what really happened. I never believed you would steal…” “They hit you?” “They said I was in the way, that I blocked Mr. Price’s car… A security guard pushed me, and I fell down a flight of stairs… We had no money for a doctor, so… it healed crooked.” “And your eye?” “From crying…” I said nothing. I saw the words “PAY UP” spray-painted in red on the wall and knew the whole story. “Where’s Dad?” My mother’s sobs stopped abruptly. “Two years ago… there was no money for his dialysis… He’s gone.” “Nina, you must be hungry.” My mother tried to press the moldy bread into my hand. Victor Price. This is what you meant when you promised to “take care of her like your own mother”? I clutched the stale bread, looked at my mother’s broken body, and gritted my teeth. “Mom, I’m going to buy some medicine. And I’m going to get back what’s ours.” 02 I tucked two hundred dollars under her pillow and, with the remaining fifty, walked to the Price Holdings tower. I had chosen the location for this building. I had secured the loans. Now, it was a place I couldn't even enter. “What do you want? Scrap collectors use the back entrance,” a security guard said, swinging his baton and eyeing me dismissively. “I’m here to see Victor Price.” “You think you can use the CEO's name like that? Do you have an appointment?” “I’m Nina Shaw.” “Nina who? Never heard of you. Get lost.” The lobby was bustling with people. Dressed as I was, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I ignored him and tried to walk past. “Hey! You asking for it?” The guard grabbed my arm and twisted it hard. A sharp pain shot through me, but I bit my lip and didn't cry out. I used his momentum, dropping into a squat to break his grip. The guard was momentarily stunned, clearly not expecting me to know how to defend myself. Enraged, he motioned for his partner to help him restrain me. “Stop.” The sharp click-clack of high heels echoed on the marble floor. The elevator doors opened, and a group of executives walked out. The woman in the lead wore a designer suit, her makeup flawless. The limited-edition Hermès bag in her hand was a gift from me, years ago. It was my former protégée, Amber Reed. “Well, well. If it isn’t my old mentor.” Amber stopped and took off her sunglasses. “What happened to you? I thought you were a homeless person.” Employees nearby slowed their pace, whispering amongst themselves. “Is that the former CFO? The one who went to prison?” “The embezzler, right? So shameless, coming back here.” I stared at Amber. “The shares Victor promised me, and my mother’s medical bills. Pay up.” “Mentor, you’re hilarious.” Amber took a step closer. She lowered her voice. “The world has changed in the five years you’ve been away.” “Victor is a billionaire now. You really think he’s going to see an ex-con?” “That’s my money.” “Yours?” Amber laughed, her perfectly styled hair bouncing. “Where’s your proof? That little agreement we had?” “Burned long ago. The books are clean now. I did them myself.” “Everything you taught me? I do it better.” She took a step back and raised her voice. “Security, be more vigilant from now on. Don’t let just any riffraff in here. If something happens, who’s going to take responsibility?” Kevin, the assistant who’d given me the money, came running out, pointing at me. “That’s right! She’s just here to extort us! Throw her out!” Two guards grabbed me, one on each side. “You’ll regret this, Amber,” I said, my eyes locked on hers. “Regret it?” Amber looked down at me. “I live in a penthouse and drive a Porsche. What do I have to regret? You, on the other hand, look like a stray dog.” “Consider this one last piece of advice from your mentor: shut your mouth and walk away.” “If the company wasn’t in the middle of its IPO, with so many eyes on us, do you really think you’d still be walking around?” Kevin waved his phone at me. “Leave now, or we call the cops. They can send you right back where you came from. This time, it’ll be for extortion and causing a public disturbance. That’s another few years for you.” Amber shot him an annoyed glance. “Why are you wasting your breath on her? Security, throw her out!” My body was lifted off the ground and then slammed onto the concrete outside. A torrential downpour started, soaking me to the bone in seconds. Amber stood behind the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out at me. Through the glass, I could read her lips. “Useless.” I wiped the rain from my face. A mixture of blood and mud trickled into my mouth, tasting of salt and rust. 03 I didn’t leave. I went around to the building’s underground garbage depot. A crumpled invitation. Half of a burnt itinerary. A few empty bottles of Evian water. I spent my last fifty dollars on a second-hand janitor’s uniform. Wearing the foul-smelling clothes, I slipped into the city’s most extravagant and exclusive private club. No one stopped me. Outside the top-floor suite, bodyguards lined the hallway. The heavy, soundproofed doors couldn’t contain the raucous noise from within. “To Mr. Price! That was a brilliant move, shedding your old skin!” I pulled my cap down low and pushed my cleaning cart forward. “Collecting empty bottles.” A bodyguard glanced at me. “Get in, get out. No dawdling.” The door opened. Victor Price was flanked by two women. His business partner, Marcus, sat beside him with a famous starlet in his lap. Amber was there too, pouring Victor a drink. A banner scrolled across a large screen: “Celebrating Our IPO, and Getting Rid of Old Baggage!” I pushed my cart into the center of the room. “Mr. Price,” I said, my voice cutting through the noise. “The old baggage is here to offer congratulations.” The air in the room froze. The music was still playing, but everyone had fallen silent. All eyes were on me. Victor’s glass stopped halfway to his lips. He squinted at me for a few seconds, then burst out laughing. “Well, I’ll be damned. Look who it is.” “Our greatest contributor, the one and only Director Shaw.” He put down his glass. “What’s the matter? Didn’t like the food upstate? Came here looking for scraps?” Marcus pushed the starlet off his lap. “What bad luck. Security! How did a beggar get in here?” I ignored Marcus. My eyes were fixed on Victor. “My mother’s leg. And the 30% equity payout we agreed on.” “Two million. The money hits my account, and I disappear.” Victor stood up. He walked over until he was standing right in front of me. “Two million?” he sneered. He turned to Amber. “Amber, our Director Shaw wants two million. Should we give it to her?” Amber glided over, a full glass of red wine in her hand. “Mr. Price, our mentor just got out. She’s a bit… ripe. I think she needs a wash.” Splash. The entire glass of wine was poured over my head. The sticky liquid ran down my hair, into my eyes, and into my mouth. The room erupted in laughter. “Hahaha! A good wash!” “Much cleaner now!” I wiped my face. Victor pointed to the wine stain on the expensive carpet. He pulled a thick wad of cash from his pocket. At least ten thousand dollars. He threw it onto the stain. “Nina,” he said, his voice dripping with condescension. “Don’t say I don’t remember the good old days.” “You always liked things clean, didn’t you?” “Lick the wine off the floor. This ten grand is yours.” The laughter stopped. Everyone was waiting for the show. I looked at the money on the floor. Slowly, I bent down, my hands on the carpet. My face was just inches from the stain. Just as I was about to touch the carpet, BAM! A leather shoe slammed into my shoulder. The force sent me flying backward, my head cracking against the corner of a table. A sharp pain exploded in the back of my skull. Victor pulled his foot back, his face a mask of disgust. “Fucking disgusting.” “I told you to lick it, and you actually were going to do it?” “Nina, when did you become so pathetic?” He picked up the money and tossed it onto a sofa. “You’re not getting a single cent from me.” “Throw her out.” Seven or eight bodyguards swarmed me, lifting me up like a piece of trash and dragging me toward the service exit. I didn’t fight back. I just stared at Victor’s fat, smug face. “Victor,” I said, my voice cold and clear. “You are going to beg me.” “You are going to get on your knees and beg me.” Victor roared with laughter, grabbing a handful of melon seeds and throwing them in my face. “Me? Beg you? Nina, did prison fry your brain?” For the second time that night, I was thrown out into the rain. Before I could even catch my breath, my phone rang. It was the hospital. “Is this Nina Shaw? Your mother was frightened by a burst pipe. She’s in cardiac arrest and we’re trying to resuscitate her. A family member needs to come to the hospital immediately to pay the deposit.” “Can you please just save her? I’ll get the money.” “I’m sorry, it’s hospital policy. The system is locked. We can’t proceed without payment.” “Okay…!” I didn’t even have five hundred dollars. As soon as I hung up, a text from Kevin popped up. “How was the wine tonight? The boss says you should know your place. Take your old hag and get out of this city. Or this is just the beginning.” It was followed by a countdown timer emoji. Years ago, my father needed half a million for a kidney transplant. Victor Price slapped the money on the table in exchange for me taking the fall for a twenty-million-dollar hole in the company’s finances. “Nina, you take this hit for us, and the company will cover your father’s surgery, and I’ll take care of your mother for the rest of her life.” I traded five years of my freedom and my entire future for my father’s life. And what was the result? My father died waiting for the money. My mother was blind and crippled. Victor, since you won’t give me what you owe, I’ll just take it myself.

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