Chapter 2
The quiet of the night was shattered by the sharp ring of my phone.
The caller ID showed Adam.
I declined the call.
The phone rang again, persistently.
I declined it again.
After several rounds of this, the phone finally went silent.
A few seconds later, a new number called.
I answered, but said nothing.
On the other end, Adam's voice came through, thick with tears.
"Emily, I was wrong. I really was."
He launched into his usual act, starting with a tearful apology.
"It was all Mary's fault. She insisted on going. I couldn't stop her.
"Emily, can you forgive me this time?"
I listened without emotion, as if I were hearing a bad actor recite a clumsy script.
When I gave no response, his tone shifted.
"Emily, I lost a lot of money on an investment recently.
"I'm really at the end of my rope. My whole family is depending on me.
"You can't be this heartless. We were husband and wife, after all."
There it was, his real intention.
The apology was fake, the plea for money was real.
A wave of nausea rose in my chest.
I hung up, opened my contacts, and blocked Adam, along with every member of his family, one by one.
The world fell quiet.
Not long after, my best friend Sophie Quinn called.
"Are you okay? I heard those lunatics came to cause trouble again."
Sophie worked in the media, and her voice always carried a brisk, energetic edge.
I briefly told her what had happened today.
On the other end, Sophie burst into a string of furious curses.
"I swear, that family has no shame at all. They keep setting new lows for human decency.
"Just wait. I'll get someone to look into what kind of mess Adam has gotten himself into.
"You need to be careful. They're like glue. If one plan fails, they'll definitely try something else."
I murmured in acknowledgment, a warmth passing through me.
"I know. Don't worry."
Sophie's warning proved true very quickly.
Early the next morning, I was jolted awake by a flood of @ mentions in the homeowners' group chat.
I opened it and saw hundreds of unread messages.
At the top was a photo taken outside my door during yesterday's chaos.
Below it, the person who posted it had added a heavily embellished caption.
[The woman in our building is something else. She made money and dumped her husband, then yesterday she even called the police and had his poor family kicked out. The whole family was downstairs crying.]
The photo had been taken from a very selective angle. It only showed Mary sitting on the ground from behind, with several officers around her, making it highly misleading.
Then Mary's unmistakable, tearful voice messages started popping up one after another.
"My son has such a hard life, marrying a woman as cruel as this.
"We came all the way from our hometown to see him, and she would not even let us in.
"She even called us country bumpkins and said we would dirty her house."
She twisted the truth and painted herself as a pitiful mother-in-law being bullied by a vicious daughter-in-law.
The group chat exploded.
Some neighbors who did not know the full story began pointing fingers at me.
"You really cannot tell. She always seemed so quiet and polite."
"Well, you never really know a person."
"No matter what, treating elders like that is a bit too much."
Some even directly @ mentioned me, telling me to "be kind" and that "family harmony is the most important thing."
I stared at the cold words on the screen and felt a wave of nausea rise in my throat, almost suffocating.
Sometimes, the blade of public opinion cuts deeper than a real knife.
I turned off my phone and took a deep breath.
Anger and grievance surged through me like waves, battering my composure.
But I could not argue with them in the group chat. That would only turn me into the same kind of shrew as Mary.
I forced myself to calm down.
After washing my face, I got dressed and went straight to the property management office.
"Hello, I'm the owner of Unit 1801 in Building 12. I need access to the surveillance footage from yesterday between five and six in the afternoon, at the entrance of Unit B.
"I need the full recording, with audio."
The property manager knew me and had heard about what happened the day before, so he cooperated without hesitation.
After getting a copy of the footage, I did not post it in the group chat right away.
That would be foolish and would only turn things into an ugly shouting match.
I went back home and took screenshots from the surveillance video, along with key sections of the deed and the divorce agreement, leaving everything unredacted.
Then I sent them privately to a few neighbors in the group who I had interacted with before and who seemed reasonable.
I did not offer much explanation, just a single line.
[Sorry for the disturbance. This is the full truth about what happened yesterday.]
After that, I put my phone down and waited quietly.
They were the ones who started the fire of public opinion.
Now, all I had to do was give it a new direction and add a little more fuel.