I was seated next to her “boring” twin sister—but her first question silenced the entire table and changed everything I thought I knew.

she did, things seemed to come into focus. She told him about her research: old properties, falsified environmental permits, neighborhoods where workshops and tenement buildings were being emptied to make room for luxury developments.

Mateo told her about his overdue rent, about the letter from his landlord warning that he might sell the building, about continue reading …