CHAPTER 1
Queens, NY
We have to get out of the city!” twenty-five-year-old Emma Grady shouts, watching images of destruction on the TV.
Her boyfriend Matt grabs her arm, yelling as he pulls her to the door. “No time! Get to the basement!”
They scream and yell through the hallway, warning people in the other six apartments. Emma stops at the apartment at the end of the hall, banging on the door. A young Indian woman opens it when she sees Emma through the peephole. “Piya! Get your family to the basement.”
The young mother is frightened and shaking. She has been up all night. “We have to evacuate,” Piya says, her words quivering from terror.
Emma grabs her hands. “Please! You won’t make it out of the city!”
Matt runs ahead, banging on doors and shouting a warning as they speed down the stairs. The sound of glass shatters above them and the building quakes, shattering their nerves. The air is pierced with indescribable fear as the apartment building basement fills with eighteen residents, each clinging to loved ones and the stranger next to them. The explosion is deafening, crumbling the ceiling above and shaking the walls. The lights flicker for several seconds before thrusting the room into darkness, shrieks and screams slicing through the black.
CHAPTER 2
Queens, NY—one week earlier
Emma tiptoes out of the bathroom, passing Matt, still sleeping, before pulling the bedroom door closed. She’s careful not to make noise in the hall as she steps to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. Matt has been working the late shift at Demarco’s, a restaurant in Midtown, while he finishes his law degree during the day. Their schedules rarely afford them the time to see much of each other. Emma leaves the apartment each day at 7:00 a.m., arriving at work thirty minutes early to help prep the physical therapy room. She’s worked as a physical therapist at Thrive Rehabilitation in Brooklyn for two years, and while Matt and several friends groan at the prospect of going to their jobs, she loves her work and looks forward to seeing her patients.
She puts a K-Cup into the single-cup coffeemaker, closes the lid, and presses brew on the machine. The coffee begins to stream into her travel mug as her phone buzzes. She reaches for it and reads a text from her sister, Sarah. Call me later. Mom and I are sampling reception food after work today!!!
Emma texts, K. Will call on my break. Have fun!
Sarah is three years younger and getting married. Emma is happy for her; Jason seems great, but there’s some part of her, somewhere deep and hidden away, that wonders why she isn’t the one planning a wedding. She tosses the nagging thought aside, ashamed again to be jealous of her sister for getting married. Growing up in Indiana, Emma was a track and field star at her local high school. She would pull her light brown hair into a high ponytail and race around the track, dreaming of running in college, but too many injuries on the university team cut all those dreams short. Between that and a failed relationship with her college sweetheart, Emma couldn’t get out of Indiana fast enough. She met Matt at a bar with some friends her second week in New York, and they seemed destined for one another.
“Are you headed out already?”
She jumps at Matt’s voice and turns to see him at the end of the hall, squinting into the light of the kitchen. He’s standing in his boxer shorts and his dark brown hair is standing straight up on his head and flat on one side, as if it’s been ironed. They dated for six months before deciding to move in together two years ago. Her dad liked Matt but didn’t approve of them living together. Her parents were old-fashioned, but she loved them anyway. She had hoped that Matt would get to know her dad better, but he died four months after they moved in together, after a short battle with cancer. She sees his mom often; she lives just over the New York state line in New Jersey, where Matt grew up with an older sister. Matt’s mom and dad divorced when he was fourteen, and his relationship with his dad is fragile at best. She’s never met him, and Matt rarely speaks of him.
“You scared me!” She reaches for cream out of the refrigerator. “Did I wake you up?”
He walks behind her and reaches his arms around her, kissing her cheek. “Couldn’t sleep. Need to study for the exam.”
She turns and kisses him. “You’ll do great!” She slides an elastic hair tie off her wrist and pulls her hair into a ponytail, then reaches for a banana out of a bowl on the counter. “Don’t forget that Rick and Brandon are coming over for drinks tonight.”
Matt throws away her used K-Cup, groaning. “After a day of exams and a night at the restaurant, I doubt I’m going to be up for Rick and Brandon.”
“You’re the one who invited them!” she says, laughing. “I found a new appetizer recipe.” He looks at her, bored. “It has bacon in it,” she says, her voice tingling with excitement.
“All right,” he says, brewing a cup of coffee. “I’m in.”
She laughs and waves. “See you later. Love you!”
“Later!” he yells toward her. He didn’t say, “I love you.” Sometimes he did. Sometimes he didn’t. Although she knew he loved her, his love just didn’t seem to be “all-in” all the time. Maybe Jason’s love for Sarah was all-in all the time. Maybe that’s why they were getting married and she and Matt weren’t.
Emma is thankful their apartment is so close to the subway, and in just a few minutes, she’s headed that way. On many days she walks there with Brandon, who lives upstairs, but he had to be at work earlier than usual today. She uses the time on the subway to read some news on her phone and eat the banana. Neither of her parents would like her hurried routine of grab and go. Her dad had especially liked sitting around the breakfast and dinner table just talking. Her eyes mist over thinking about him, and she scrolls through the news: some redcarpet event has brought out several stars, two new online shows debut tonight, a construction accident will have traffic in knots on the East Side today, people are opposing the mayor’s new regulations on small businesses, and President Thomas Banes will meet with the president of China at the Oval Office.
Linda and Carrie are both at the front desk when Emma arrives at Thrive. Linda must be in her fifties; both of her children have recently graduated from college. Carrie is in her thirties with three children in elementary school. She has beautiful dark almond skin, long cornrows, and typically wears a bright scarf tied around her head.
“Hi, Emma,” Carrie says, looking over her computer. “It’s gonna be a great day!”
Carrie grew up in the foster care system but has somehow managed to turn the pain and hardship of her early life into eternal optimism. She’s famous for saying, “God’s got this” to employees at the office when their car has broken down, or they are struggling financially, or they need another job. She and Roderick have been married twelve years, and Emma can always tell when she’s talking to him on the phone because her laugh, a high-pitched cackle, can be heard throughout the therapy room.
Aliyah, Reggie, and Mateo are busy looking over their patient lists for today. Aliyah has short black hair and skin the color of smooth milk chocolate. She’s somewhere in her late twenties and expecting her first child with her boyfriend, Keenan. Reggie is in his forties, from Honduras, and the divorced father of two. He sees his girls every other weekend. He’s been a physical therapist for more than twenty years and the one Emma turns to when she needs help with a patient. Mateo is from a large Hispanic family, looks like he’s in his late twenties or early thirties, and has a smile as big as his personality.