Chapter 2

2

The next morning at seven, someone started hammering on my door.

It wasn’t a knock; it was a physical assault on the wood.

Fists and palms took turns, making the entire steel door vibrate.

“Open up!

Open the door, Ms. Vance!

Don’t even think about leaving until we settle this!”

It was Maddy’s voice, louder than when she was gossiping in the lobby.

Other voices joined in―men and women, mixing local slang with insults.

I looked through the peephole.

Five or six people were crowded into the hallway.

Maddy was leading the pack, followed by a burly, dark-skinned man, two older women, and a teenager in a school hoodie.

“She’s intentionally blocking our way and won’t let us park, and then she has the nerve to say I keyed her car!

I’m a working woman, when would I have the time to touch her piece-of-junk car?

She’s just trying to scam us!”

She wailed in the hallway, slapping her thighs, causing neighbors to pop their heads out.

I took a deep breath and opened the door.

The group immediately swarmed me.

Maddy plopped down on the floor, while her relatives blocked my exit, shouting insults at me.

The burly man was likely her husband, Clyde.

He pointed a finger at my nose, spraying spit on my face. “If you don’t cough up three thousand dollars for emotional damages right now, we aren’t leaving!

Forget about going to work today!”

Three thousand dollars―their excuse was “you caused our family distress and delayed our commute.”

I actually laughed when I heard that.

Not out of fear, but because of the sheer absurdity.

My car was keyed, the repairs cost four thousand, and the person who did it was now extorting me for three thousand while blocking my door.

Maddy’s mother-in-law banged her cane on the floor, her voice raspy and shrill. “You’re just a girl from out of town, bullying your long-time neighbors. Have you no conscience?”

The hallway was filled with eyes.

The lady across the hall, the old man from downstairs, the young couple next door―everyone was watching, but no one said a word.

I pulled out my phone.

“Take a good look.”

I turned the screen toward the gathered neighbors.

It was the video clip exported from my dashcam.

The footage showed that at 9:43 PM, Maddy walked out of the building, approached my car, leaned down, and used a key in her right hand to rake a line from the hood to the trunk.

She did it slowly and with a lot of pressure.

“Maddy, was this an accidental bump?”

The hallway suddenly went silent.

Maddy sat on the floor, her mouth hanging open.

Her face froze for five solid seconds.

Then she lunged at me to grab my phone. “You filmed me illegally! You’re violating my privacy!”

I stepped back and held the phone high.

“This is a common area of the building.

Weren’t you just saying you were innocent?

Then who is this in the video?”

The neighbors began to whisper among themselves.

The lady across the hall muttered, “Well, that’s pretty obvious,” and the old man let out a scoff.

Maddy’s in-laws stood there, their faces turning various shades of red and white.

Clyde, who had been so righteous a moment ago, suddenly changed his tune. “She... she didn’t mean it. It was probably just an accident.”

“An accident that goes from the front bumper to the tailpipe?”

He went silent.