Chapter 1 I was in the middle of setting up the dehumidifiers for my new house when I got a call from the HOA manager of my old condo building. "Ms. Jenkins, your apartment leaked and ruined the downstairs neighbor's collectible grand piano! They are demanding two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in damages!" I paused, confused. "Leaked to the downstairs neighbor?" Thinking I was trying to dodge responsibility, his tone turned hostile. "The downstairs resident made it clear: if you don't pay up today, they're calling the cops. They're going to press charges for intentional destruction of private property and have you thrown in jail." "You're all neighbors. Please come deal with this immediately before it gets ugly." I let out a cold laugh. "Sure. I'll head over right now." I really wanted to see how my ground-floor condo, which didn't even have a basement underneath it, magically leaked onto a downstairs neighbor! ... When I rushed back to the old, garden-style condo complex, the hallway was completely packed with onlookers. Chloe Miller stood at the front of the crowd, her eyes bloodshot from crying. Flanking her were a police officer and Mr. Henderson, the HOA manager. The moment she saw me, she lunged forward, her acrylic nails digging painfully into my arm. "Sarah! You finally showed your face!" "Your apartment leaked and completely destroyed my piano!" The glaring eyes of all the surrounding neighbors instantly pinned me down. I yanked my arm back and stared at her coldly. "Let's get one thing straight. What do you mean, my apartment leaked?" As if triggered by my response, tears immediately spilled down Chloe's face. Trembling, she opened a video on her phone and shoved the screen right into my face. "Look for yourself!" "There's water entirely surrounding my piano! The legs are soaked, and the lid is literally dripping!" In the video, a black grand piano sat in the middle of a living room. The floor was covered in soggy towels, and water stains crept from the legs of the instrument all the way to the baseboards. Chloe pressed a hand to her chest, her voice shaking. "This isn't just any piano. It's an imported, custom-crafted collectible. It cost me two hundred and fifty thousand dollars!" "I have a major recital next month. Now it's ruined, and I have absolutely no way to practice. What am I supposed to do?" "You didn't just ruin my property, Sarah! You ruined my career! You ruined my life!" The neighbors immediately erupted into furious chatter. "A quarter-million-dollar piano! If it's really ruined, this is a massive lawsuit." "Ignoring a leak and acting like nothing happened? That is so messed up." Mr. Henderson wiped the sweat from his forehead and advised me in a hushed tone. "Ms. Jenkins, you're neighbors. Why don't we sit down and negotiate a settlement before this escalates?" Watching Chloe look as if she were about to faint from distress, my heart turned to ice. "I didn't cause any leak. Why the hell should I pay for it?" Chloe froze, biting her lip as if she couldn't believe my audacity. "Sarah, don't you dare play dumb!" She reached into her designer bag, pulled out a shipping manifest, and shoved it forward. "Officer, look at this! She's been buying water pumps, hoses, and industrial dehumidifiers for days!" "If her apartment wasn't flooding, why would she be buying drainage equipment?!" The onlookers immediately crowded in to look. "I work in construction. Those are definitely water extraction tools." "No wonder she's denying it so hard! She was probably just waiting for everyone to go to sleep tonight so she could secretly pump the water out and destroy the evidence!" The police officer's expression darkened, and the way he looked at me grew far more suspicious. Chloe wiped her tears, her tone a mix of victimhood and aggression. "Sarah, I didn't want to force your hand." "But the evidence is right here. Just because you have enough money to buy a new house doesn't mean you can bully a musician who relies on her piano to survive!" I stared at the shipping manifest for two seconds, and suddenly let out a laugh. "Do me a favor and read the fine print. The shipping address is for my new house, not this building." "Those machines are for dehumidifying my newly renovated basement. It has absolutely nothing to do with your piano." "My condo here has never leaked a single drop of water!" The color drained from Chloe's face for a split second. Just as she was about to speak, the neighbor who lived next door to Unit 302 yelled out. "Bullshit!" "Your apartment leaked last month and flooded my bathroom ceiling! You think you can deny it now?!" Chapter 2 I was stunned. Before I could even react, he pulled out the HOA group chat logs. [To the lady in 302: Is your apartment leaking? The ceiling in my bathroom is covered in water stains.] [Owner of 302, please reply. Stop playing dead.] [If you don't handle this, I'm calling the HOA!] That's when it clicked. Half a month ago, someone in the chat did complain about a leak from Unit 302. But ever since my grandmother passed away three years ago, I had sold Unit 302 and permanently moved down to my ground-floor condo, Unit 102. When I saw the messages back then, I didn't even associate them with myself. I had no idea they all still assumed I was the owner of 302. The angry neighbor glared at me and turned to the officer. "Officer, look at this. She gave us the silent treatment back then and forced us to eat the repair costs." "I can't believe she's trying to deny it again today. Do not let her get away with this!" Listening to this, I found the situation hilariously absurd. "I haven't owned Unit 302 for years. Why would I admit to a leak that isn't mine?" Chloe was trembling with manufactured rage. She pointed at me furiously. "Sarah, the evidence has been slapped right across your face! How can you still lie?!" I ignored her and looked directly at the HOA manager. "Mr. Henderson, I'd like you to pull the resident registry right now. Show them exactly which unit I live in." The officer nodded. "Agreed. This point needs to be clarified immediately." Mr. Henderson's eyes darted around nervously. He mumbled an excuse. "Well... the records for these older buildings are a bit messy. The old registry from a few years ago was lost during a system migration, and we haven't finished compiling the new one yet." Hearing this, a flash of smug triumph crossed Chloe's eyes. She looked down, wiped her tears with the back of her hand, and spoke with pitiful grievance. "You hear that, Officer?" "She's just taking advantage of the missing HOA records to lie through her teeth." My brow furrowed, my tone turning deadly serious. "I am not lying. I do not live in 302, and my house did not cause this leak. This is defamation!" The moment those words left my mouth, Chloe's eyes grew even redder. "Sarah, have you no conscience?!" "My home was destroyed by you! How can you stand there and accuse me of lying?!" With that, she violently twisted the knob and threw her front door open. The moment the door opened, the suffocating, musty stench of damp mold rolled out into the hallway. The edges of the living room ceiling were covered in massive yellow water stains, and droplets of water clung to the corners of the walls. The black grand piano was covered in water damage, and a dark, soaked ring stained the hardwood floor completely around it. She pointed a shaking finger at the dripping piano, her voice breaking dramatically. "I specially commissioned this master-crafted piano from Europe. The shipping alone cost me five thousand dollars." "Now it's soaked and warped. The keys won't even play. The appraiser said it's a total loss, completely beyond repair." "Sarah, this piano is my entire life! Why on earth would I use my own life's work just to frame you?!" Seeing the devastation inside the apartment, the neighbors completely turned against me. "Oh my god, look at that ceiling. It's definitely coming from the unit above." "The evidence is literally right in front of us. Why is she still pretending?" I stood in the doorway, staring at the water stains. My heart sank slightly. The water had definitely come from above. But "above" was not my house. I looked at Chloe. "I feel bad that your apartment flooded." "But my sympathy doesn't mean I'm going to pay for someone else's mistake." The frail, victimized look on Chloe's face stiffened. She took a deep breath, abruptly wiped her tears away, and glared at me. "Fine. Since you're still refusing to admit it, let's open the door to the upstairs unit! Let the police and everyone here go inside and look!" "Let's see if your apartment has any signs of a leak!" Chapter 3 The hallway fell dead silent. Everyone's eyes were fixed on me. The officer nodded in agreement. "Ms. Jenkins, Ms. Miller makes a fair point. It would be best to open the door so we can inspect the premises." "If there are no signs of a leak, it will clear your name." But I shook my head. "I can't open it." The moment I said that, the neighbors swarmed closer. Someone tried to urge me: "Sarah, just open the door. It's not hard." "If it really wasn't you, one look inside will prove it, right?" Others were openly antagonistic: "Hmph, she won't open it because she's guilty!" The officer's face instantly darkened. "Ms. Jenkins, we are trying to help you clear your name. Please cooperate with the investigation!" Chloe looked up at me, her tone dripping with malice. "Sarah, is it that you can't open the door, or that you're too scared to open it?" "Are you afraid that the second the door opens and we see a flooded floor, your lie will be exposed?" Listening to her loaded questions, my heart sank further. I spoke coldly. "I can't open the door to the upstairs unit because I sold it three years ago, right after my grandmother passed away." "The sale contract is in my living room downstairs. Should I go get it for you right now?" Chloe's expression faltered for a second, but then she smiled. "Sarah, to get out of paying your debts, are you really denying where you live?" "I literally saw the delivery driver leave your package at the door of 302 yesterday! And you're still saying you don't live there?" Watching her absolute certainty, I couldn't help but laugh. Yesterday, I did go up to the third floor to grab a package. I had forgotten to update my default address on Amazon, and the driver accidentally left my delivery at the door of my old unit. I went up to look for it after getting the delivery notification. I never expected that she would use that as proof that I lived upstairs. I explained coldly. "The driver delivered it to the wrong floor. I simply went upstairs to retrieve my own property." Chloe completely dismissed it. "What a convenient coincidence. The exact day your package was 'delivered to the wrong floor' just happens to be the day my apartment flooded?" The neighbors eagerly backed her up. "Yeah, that sounds like a massive excuse!" "Who accidentally goes to someone else's door to get a package? She probably lives there full-time." Listening to their accusations, my brow furrowed deeply. "I grabbed my package and left. I haven't been to the third floor since." Chloe's eyes immediately went red again. "Ms. Jenkins, even now, you're still denying it?" She bit her lip, putting on a flawless performance of a woman pushed to her absolute breaking point. "We're neighbors. I wanted to leave you some dignity, but you're forcing my hand." With that, she pulled up a security video on her phone. "I just went to the HOA office and pulled the hallway security footage for the third floor. It clearly shows her entering Unit 302 this morning!" I was stunned. The next second, I looked at the footage. A woman wearing the exact same blouse and jeans I was currently wearing walked straight up to the door of 302. She seamlessly typed in the passcode, opened the door, and walked inside. Chloe handed the phone to the police officer. "Sarah, the security camera caught you entering 302. Are you still going to deny it?" Chapter 4 I stared at the footage, almost doubting my own eyes. A light-colored jacket, white sneakers, even her posture as she walked bore a striking resemblance to mine. But I knew the truth. At that exact time, I was across town at my new house. I looked up at the HOA manager, my voice dangerously tight. "That footage is tampered with." Mr. Henderson immediately waved his hands defensively, a layer of sweat forming on his forehead. "Ms. Jenkins, you can't just make wild accusations like that." "The building's security cameras are automatically backed up to the system. There are server logs. No one touched them." "The clip on Ms. Miller's phone was exported and sent directly by our office. I guarantee there was zero human manipulation." The officer inspected the video on the phone and nodded. "The video shows no obvious signs of splicing or artificial editing." That sentence dropped into the crowd like a bomb. The neighbors absolutely exploded. The older woman pointed a trembling finger at me, furious. "You're literally on camera opening the door, and you still say it isn't you?!" Someone else sneered. "People these days are terrifying. The evidence is shoved in her face and she still denies it." I looked at their mocking, judgmental eyes, and my hands clenched into tight fists. Chloe dabbed at the corner of her eye. Her tone softened, but her face radiated pure, smug triumph. "Sarah, we're neighbors. I really didn't want to escalate things to this level." "I know a quarter of a million dollars is a massive amount of money. How about this? I'll take a step back." "You can pay in installments. You pay fifty thousand upfront today, and I'll give you two months to come up with the remaining two hundred thousand." The crowd immediately began feeling sorry for her. "This poor girl is being so accommodating, and Sarah is still acting like this?" "Yeah, just pay the money and learn your lesson. You don't want this going to court, it'll ruin you." Mr. Henderson wiped his sweat and chimed in. "Ms. Jenkins, the evidence is incredibly damning right now." "If you're willing to sign a settlement agreement, we can resolve this privately." Chloe pulled a pre-drafted legal agreement from her purse and gently placed it in front of me. "I don't want to destroy your reputation, and I don't want you to go to jail." "Sign this, and I won't press charges for intentional destruction of property." "Don't you have a new house? If worse comes to worst, you can sell this old condo. That will easily cover the damages." The moment she said that, the neighbors grew even more eager, pressuring me from all sides. "Exactly! Selling a house is better than sitting in a prison cell!" Someone even started doing the math for me. "Two properties? You've got plenty of equity. Just liquidate one." I stared at the settlement agreement. The $250,000 figure in the damages column burned my eyes. That's when I finally understood. She didn't want justice. She had calculated this entire thing from the very beginning. She wanted to extort me for a massive payday using my property as collateral. Officer Davis looked at me, his tone growing stern. "Ms. Jenkins, if both parties cannot reach an amicable settlement, Ms. Miller is well within her rights to pursue legal action." "At that point, you won't just be paying damages. If the intent was malicious, you could be facing prison time." "If you have any actual evidence to prove your innocence, I suggest you present it immediately." Chloe aggressively shoved a pen into my hand, her voice brimming with absolute certainty. "Sarah, the evidence is ironclad. You can't lie your way out of this one!" "Just sign the paper and stop embarrassing everyone." I looked at the smug, triumphant expressions on their faces. I dropped the pen directly onto the floor. "Officer Davis, I do actually have one more piece of evidence I haven't shown you." Chloe's smile froze. I reached into my bag, pulled out my property deed, and handed it directly to the officer. "This is the deed to my property. It states, in black and white, that my condo is located on the ground floor. Unit 102." The blood slowly drained from Chloe's face. I looked at her and smiled. "Please, explain it to the police." "How does the plumbing from a ground-floor condo leak UP into a second-floor ceiling?" Chapter 5 The hallway went as silent as a graveyard. Chloe stared dead at my property deed, the tears still clinging to her eyelashes, but her lips had turned completely white. I smoothed the deed out in front of the police officer and spoke slowly, emphasizing every word. "Look closely. My condo is on the ground floor." "For my apartment to flood Chloe's ceiling, this entire building would have to be flipped upside down." Someone in the crowd audibly gasped. The older woman who had been screaming at me the loudest looked uneasy, but she remained stubborn. "That still doesn't prove the third-floor unit isn't yours! Didn't you say that condo belonged to your grandmother?!" As if suddenly grabbing a lifeline, Chloe snapped her head up. "Yes! Your grandmother passed away, so the property would naturally be inherited by you!" She looked at the police with red, tearful eyes, her voice choking with perfectly timed sobs. "Officer, she is such a manipulative liar." "Showing you the deed for the first floor doesn't mean Unit 302 has nothing to do with her." "These old HOA records are a mess! Who knows if she's just intentionally hiding the deed for the other unit?!" The neighbors were instantly swayed again. "That makes sense. It's totally normal for a granddaughter to inherit a property." "She admitted herself that the third-floor unit used to be her grandmother's." "No wonder she refused to open the door. She was definitely guilty!" I almost laughed out loud. The evidence was literally staring them in the face, but they were still desperately trying to force the blame onto my shoulders. I looked at Chloe and asked coldly: "Are you absolutely certain you want to keep insisting that I own 302?" Chloe bit her lip, a flash of vicious determination in her eyes. "Sarah, I'm not making things up. You're the one who refuses to tell the truth." "If you're really innocent, then show us the proof that 302 doesn't belong to you." Mr. Henderson immediately chimed in. "Ms. Jenkins, since things have escalated to this point, it would be best if you clarified the ownership of the third-floor property." I looked at the sweat gleaming on his forehead, a chilling realization settling in my chest. Since this entire ordeal started, he had been relentlessly pushing me to settle privately, constantly aiming the crosshairs at my back. I didn't waste any more breath. I reached straight into my bag and pulled out another manila folder. "Fine. Let's make things perfectly clear." A flicker of panic crossed Chloe's face, but she quickly masked it with a forced sneer. "Don't try to fool us with forged documents." I pulled out a contract and handed it to Officer Davis. "This is the official bill of sale and the title transfer documentation for Unit 302, executed after my grandmother's death." "The property was sold three years ago. Since that day, I have had absolutely zero connection to it." Officer Davis took it and flipped to the first page. The onlookers craned their necks to see. Initially, I just wanted to shut them up. But the next second, my eyes landed on the buyer's name, and my entire body froze. Written in black and white on the contract was a name. David Miller. The HOA manager checked his digital roster on his tablet and gasped. "This David Miller... he is Chloe Miller's... husband." The remaining color in Chloe's face vanished instantly, leaving her looking like a ghost. I held the contract up right in front of her face and smiled. "Chloe. It turns out the unit upstairs... belongs to your family?" Chapter 6 Chloe's pupils contracted violently. She instinctively took a half-step backward, her fingers gripping the strap of her purse so tightly her knuckles turned bone white. But she recovered incredibly fast. She immediately covered her mouth, and the tears started flowing on command. "I didn't know! I swear I didn't know!" She looked at the police, weeping, and then looked pleadingly at the neighbors. "David never discusses his real estate investments with me." "I practice piano and rehearse for shows all day. How was I supposed to know he bought an investment property behind my back?!" She sounded so incredibly pitiful, her voice shaking violently. The neighbors, who had just been in shock, started hesitating again. "I guess spouses don't always know everything about each other's finances." "A husband buying a property behind his wife's back... it happens." I let out a cold laugh. "You had absolutely no idea Unit 302 was bought by your husband, yet you were willing to swear on your life that it belonged to me?" Chloe choked on her words, then screamed in defensive desperation. "That's because all the evidence pointed to you!" "You were on the security cameras, the package was delivered to you, you were the one who opened the door!" "My piano was destroyed! Shouldn't I suspect the most suspicious person?!" With that sentence, she successfully repackaged herself as the ultimate victim once again. Officer Davis, however, didn't follow her narrative. He looked at the contract and asked: "Ms. Miller, can we contact your husband right now?" Chloe's eyes darted nervously. "He... he's out of town on a business trip. It might not be a good time." I immediately pulled out my phone. "It doesn't matter if it's a good time or not." "This involves a quarter-million-dollar extortion claim, and severe water damage originating from a property registered in his name. As the legal owner, his presence is mandatory." Officer Davis nodded and signaled for Chloe to make the call. Reluctantly, Chloe dialed the number, and under the officer's instruction, put it on speakerphone. It rang for a long time before it finally connected. A man's impatient voice blared through the speaker. "What now? Didn't I tell you to hurry up and get her to sign the settlement agreement?!" Chloe's face mutated in horror. She frantically lunged to turn off the speaker. Officer Davis physically blocked her hand. "Mr. Miller, this is the local police department." "Regarding the severe water damage caused to the second-floor unit originating from Unit 302, which is registered under your name, we need you to cooperate with our investigation." The line went dead silent. A few seconds later, David's voice came back, layered in pure, unadulterated panic. "What do you mean, 'my name'?! Don't talk crazy!" Chloe shrieked desperately: "David, shut up!" But it was too late. Acting as if he hadn't heard her warning, David blurted out the truth. "Didn't you say Sarah would definitely sign the papers?! Why are the cops investigating ME?!" The moment that sentence dropped, the entire hallway felt like someone had hit the pause button on the universe. Every single neighbor froze in shock. The phone slipped from Chloe's hand and crashed onto the floor. She was deathly pale, but she was still trying to maintain the lie. "No, no! It's not what you think! He's been drinking! He's just talking nonsense!" I leaned down, picked up the phone, and handed it to Officer Davis. "He hasn't even had a drink, but he's already drunk?" Chloe whipped her head around and glared at me, her eyes filled with a hatred so venomous it looked like she wanted to tear my throat out. "Sarah, this is you! You colluded with him in advance, didn't you?! You purposely set me up!" I looked at her, almost laughing from the sheer audacity. "Your own husband literally just admitted he was trying to force me to sign an extortion agreement, and somehow that's my fault?" Chloe tried to lunge at me, but the police officers held her back. While everyone's attention was fixed on her, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. The HOA manager, Mr. Henderson, was quietly shuffling toward the back of the crowd. His footsteps were light, but he was moving incredibly fast. My heart dropped. I stepped forward and physically blocked his path. "Mr. Henderson, the show isn't over yet. Where are you rushing off to?"
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