Family Landlords Raise the Rent to Force One Sister Out
The lobby of the marketing agency was quiet at nine o’clock on Monday morning. The polished gray stone floor reflected the overhead fluorescent lights, and the security guard barely looked up as I swiped my badge. Keith, my supervisor, was already standing near the glass-walled directory board, holding a folder of printed client reports. His blue ballpoint pen clicked three times in rapid succession before he looked up to acknowledge me.
“Your remote metrics for Friday showed a four percent lag in response time during our peak afternoon hours, Lauren,” Keith said, his voice level and clipped, filled with the flat jargon of the corporate updates he wrote weekly. “We need to maintain client bandwidth without any residential interruptions.”
“My home office setup changed slightly over the weekend,” I said, holding my briefcase tightly against my side. “My sister moved into the spare room, but I am adjusting the space to keep things quiet.”
