The South Side never changed overnight.
It shifted quietly—like a chessboard moved while everyone argued about checkers.
Luke saw it coming months before the first coffee shop with reclaimed wood tables appeared.
Reading the City
The System hummed.
Genius Analytical Ability — ACTIVE
Luke didn't look at people.
He looked at permits.
Zoning adjustments filed six months early.
Utility upgrades that didn't match current population density.
Shell LLCs buying corner lots and parking structures—not houses.
That's how gentrification really started.
Not with artists.
With spreadsheets.
"These blocks," Luke said, tapping a printed map spread across the Gallagher kitchen table. "They'll flip in five years. Ten max."
Fiona leaned over his shoulder. "And us?"
He circled their street.
"Ground zero."
Silence fell.
Even Frank—hungover, half-listening—felt it.
The Gallagher House Play
The Gallagher house wasn't just a structure.
It was trauma.
History.
Bloodstains scrubbed out but never forgotten.
Developers wanted it cheap.
Luke made sure they never got the chance.
He moved first—quietly, legally, clean.
No straw buyers.
No shady loans.
Just cash and paperwork.
When the title transferred, Fiona held it like it might vanish.
"We own it?" she asked.
Luke nodded. "Forever, if you want."
For the first time in her life, the house didn't feel like a trap.
It felt like an asset.
The Alibi Room
Kev didn't understand what was happening until Luke slid the documents across the bar.
"What's this?" Kev asked.
"Insurance," Luke said.
V and Kev exchanged looks.
The Alibi Room—dirty floors, sticky tables, history soaked into every inch—was already marked by developers. The kind who bought bars, raised rents, and turned them into sterile "concept lounges."
Luke bought the title before the offer letters even arrived.
"You're not losing this place," he said simply. "Not to people who don't know your names."
Kev swallowed hard.
V hugged Luke without asking.
Some things were worth more than ROI.
Control the Narrative
Luke didn't fight gentrification head-on.
That was impossible.
He positioned against it.
Owner-occupied protections.
Community-use zoning.
Historical designation filings backed by local records.
Not to stop change—
—but to slow it.
Enough for the people who mattered to adjust.
Enough to prevent erasure.
The North Chicago Villa
Then came the unexpected move.
The exit plan.
Luke drove Fiona north without explanation.
Quiet streets.
Tree-lined avenues.
A villa set back behind iron gates—not obscene, not flashy.
Just… safe.
"Luke," Fiona said slowly, "what the hell is this?"
"For the family," he replied. "When the South Side gets loud."
She walked through the house like she didn't trust the walls.
Bedrooms for everyone.
A real kitchen.
Windows that faced green instead of brick.
No sirens.
No fear.
"You're moving us out?" she asked.
"No," Luke said. "I'm giving you a choice."
That mattered more than anything.
Frank's Realization
Frank stood in the living room, unusually quiet.
"So this is it," he muttered. "We made it to the good neighborhood."
Luke looked at him coldly.
"You didn't," he said. "They did."
Frank laughed—but it died halfway.
For once, he knew better than to argue.
Aftermath
Back on the South Side, the Gallagher house stood unchanged.
Same porch.
Same cracks.
But now—
It belonged to them.
The Alibi Room stayed loud, messy, alive.
And up north, the villa waited—not as an escape, but as a fallback.
The System updated silently.
EVENT COMPLETED: Gentrification Gambit
Assets Secured: Gallagher House, Alibi Room, North Chicago Villa
Family Stability: High
Cycle Status: Irreversibly Broken
That night, Fiona sat on the old front steps, keys in her hand.
"Promise me something," she said.
Luke paused. "What?"
"No matter how rich we get… don't let us forget where we came from."
Luke looked down the block—at kids playing, at broken streetlights, at a place that made him who he was.
"I won't," he said.
"Power means nothing if you abandon the people who taught you how to survive."
The South Side breathed on.
And for the first time—
It didn't feel temporary.