Theo stood by his open door a moment, contemplating what was about to happen. In the morning, after he got the letter, he’d make his way to St. Paul. Hopefully he could catch up with Lucas Carson there, at the offices for the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad. If not, Theo could always find him in Duluth.

After a dozen years of keeping close watch on what Lucas Carson did and said, Theo finally felt he might have a chance to ruin the man. After all, Carson had ruined Theo’s life. His actions had brought about the end to both a lavish lifestyle and the life of the only friend and mentor Theo had ever had.

Rafael Clarington had become a friend by chance when Theo had been hired to work for Martin Carson. Well, not exactly for him, but as a teller at his bank in Philadelphia. Theo had just graduated from college with the help of some friends who had managed to get him the answers for his final tests. Theo had paid a pretty penny for them, getting the money from his preacher father. Theo had told his father the money was needed for an increase in his rent, and his father, though skeptical because of the past, gave Theo the money he had carefully saved all his life.

At his new bank job, Theo had met Rafael Clarington, who worked in the audit department. It wasn’t long before the two men were the best of friends, despite Clarington’s being much older. In time, they devised the perfect scheme to embezzle money. They never took much, lest it be noticed and someone called it to the attention of Mr. Carson. Clarington, it turned out, had quite a history of such shenanigans, as he called them. To the older man, it was nothing more than a game. No real harm was ever done, and he benefitted greatly.

After a while, he bought a place and invited Theo to live with him. Those had been good years, until Lucas Carson figured out their arrangement at the bank. Clarington was caught, since he was the one who had fixed the books. He never mentioned Theo to the police or at his trial, and he was found guilty and sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor in prison.

Everything Clarington owned was sold to recoup the embezzled money. Theo had been dressing for work when men showed up to make an inventory of everything in their home. He had tried to explain that not everything in the house belonged to Clarington, that some of it was his. The men were unimpressed with his pleas. They didn’t even ask his name. Instead, they told him he could take whatever he could carry out in the next five minutes. Everything else would be sold.