Chapter 82
Chapter 82: The Next Generation’s Battle
By 2057, young Claire had moved to New York, living in the same Greenpoint studio apartment Anna had occupied decades ago. She was brilliant, fiery, and fiercely independent, refusing to use the family trust fund for anything other than her tuition, preferring to work part-time as a gallery assistant to pay her rent.
But New York real estate in the late 2050s was controlled by massive, AI-driven corporate investment trusts.
One evening, Claire called Anna in a fury. A tech conglomerate called Aegis Infrastructure had quietly bought up three blocks of historic brownstones in Brooklyn—including the neighborhood where Anna’s original design laboratory stood—intending to level them for a high-density, automated corporate complex.
"They're using a loophole in the city’s green-zoning laws, Aunt Anna," Claire explained, her voice buzzing with that raw, Davis indignation. "They're claiming the old structures are structurally inefficient to force an eminent domain eviction. They don't care about the history or the community."
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Anna sat at her desk in Virginia, a cold, sharp smile spreading across her elegant face. It was the exact same expression she wore when she faced Elena Thorne in the City Hall chamber fifteen years ago.
"They think they found a loophole because they wrote the algorithm, Claire," Anna said, her voice smooth and dangerous. "But they forgot that I wrote the actual green-zoning guidelines for the state of New York in 2038. Tell the neighborhood association to file an emergency injunction. The Davis women are coming back to town."
