Chapter 1
Three in the morning, and a call from building management dragged me out of sleep.
I checked my phone and saw that someone had tagged me in the residents' group chat.
Sandra: [1601, do you have any shame at all? Screaming like that every night. You want the whole building to know you're making a baby?]
Sandra: [My daughter just started her freshman year, and now she's growing up way too fast because of you.]
Sandra: [Make one more sound and I'll go live from my apartment so everyone can see exactly what kind of woman you are.]
Sandra, the woman right below me, kept laying into me, and other residents chimed in that my noise had been keeping them up too.But I wasn't even home!
But I wasn't even home!
The thought of my husband cheating hit me, and I pulled up the camera in the bedroom.
The moment I got a clear look at the woman in my bed, I smiled.
Wasn't that the freshman from downstairs?
*****
After a week of nonstop meetings out of town, I was dead tired and all I wanted was to crash at home.
At 3 a.m., my driver pulled onto the highway.
I was stretched out in the back seat when the property management suddenly called and jolted me awake.
When I checked the residents' group chat, I saw Sandra Shaw downstairs was going off again.
Ever since she moved in, she's been complaining about everything. Either our footsteps are too loud and mess up her sleep, or she's pissed that we have too many guests and the elevator keeps stopping at her floor.
She's tagged me in the group for every little thing, big or small, more times than I can count.
This time, her accusation was completely made up, so I wasn't planning to bother with her.
But the neighbors who normally stayed quiet started chiming in.
[We all get it, but the noise is way too loud. It's really messing things up. 1601, you should try to keep it down.]
[This is a school district. Every family has kids. Yesterday, my son asked me what those sounds were, and honestly, I had no idea how to explain.]
Seeing all their messages, I was totally floored.
If Sandra was the only one hearing things, maybe she was stirring up trouble. But I never had issues with the other neighbors, so there was no reason for them to make stuff up about me.
Maybe they mixed up the noise from another unit and thought it was coming from mine.
Thinking that, I posted my meeting records from last night and my current location in the group chat.
"I really haven't been home these past two days. You must have the wrong person," I said.
After I explained, the group chat went dead silent.
Five minutes later, Sandra sent a voice message, her laugh cold as ice.
"I pressed my ear right up to your door and listened. The noise was definitely coming from your place. If it wasn't you, then who else could it be?"
Suddenly, my heart dropped. I couldn't help but wonder if my husband was cheating on me.
We'd known each other since high school, survived the tough long-distance years in college, and built everything we have today together.
After all these years as husband and wife, I couldn't believe he'd cheat on me.
Another neighbor tagged me: [1601, we get it, your husband's got stamina, but can you please keep it down?]
My hands were shaking as I typed out a reply in the group chat.
"I'm not home. Hold on, I'll check the camera."
My best friend had convinced me to secretly install a camera in the bedroom. She said our family was loaded now, and since I was always traveling for work, sooner or later my marriage might hit a rough patch.
If my husband cheated first, maybe the camera would catch it.
At the time, I brushed it off.
And there he was on the camera, my husband, with another woman.
The woman turned her head.
As soon as I saw her face, I was floored.
Wait, wasn't that Sandra's daughter, the one who's a freshman?