Under my window, two men in canvas caps were unloading wooden crates of lemons from the back of a little blue truck, calling back and forth in fast Portuguese.

I logged into the company network and opened my secure email client.

At the top of my inbox was a new message from Sarah Mitchell, sent from her downtown Chicago office four hours before.

I clicked the attached link before reading the message itself.

It was an official document from the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, bearing the official seal from three days earlier.

The bank had formally filed a notice of default against the house I grew up in out in the Chicago suburbs.