He Locked The AC At Sixteen While I Bled In Pain Chapter 03

He Locked The AC At Sixteen While I Bled In Pain Chapter 03

A wave of icy cold washed over me. I flung open the door to the guest bedroom.

Inside, bright studio ring lights were shining. Ethan was sitting by the edge of the bed holding a glass of warm water, while Anna had her phone mounted on a tripod, running a live-stream product sale.

Hearing the commotion, Ethan turned around, immediately scowling as he pressed a finger to his lips.

“Shh, keep it down. Anna is dropping a product link right now. Don’t interrupt her,” Ethan whispered.

But as my eyes swept over the live stream projection monitor behind Anna, my brain exploded with a violent buzz.

The screen was explicitly showing the feed from our home security cameras. Right in the center of the broadcast was a crystal-clear video of me exposed, stripped down to my underwear in the hallway.

Tens of thousands of viewers were watching the stream, the chat flooding with disgusting, creepy comments.

“What the hell are those cameras outside doing!” I screamed, my voice shaking as I rushed forward to grab Anna’s phone. “Turn it off! What right do you have to broadcast my private life to the world!”

“Ah!” Anna shrieked, dropping her phone onto the carpet. She shrank timidly behind Ethan, squeezing out a few tears.

“Nadia, I’m so sorry… I was doing a sponsored stream to sell this smart security system. I just wanted to show the followers the high-definition quality of the backend app. I didn’t know you’d be taking your clothes off out there right at that moment…”

Ethan shoved me away, forcefully wrenching me up from the floor.

“Nadia, what kind of episode are you throwing now!” Ethan yelled. “The way you cut the power cord with scissors in the middle of the night last time terrified Anna. She already suffers from anxiety and constantly worries you’re going to snap and hurt her. Installing a few cameras was just to give her some peace of mind!”

“She’s trying to build her career with these streams, and it was just an accidental click that switched the feed!” Ethan added. “You were wearing underwear, it’s not like you were completely naked. What is there to scream about? Do you have to ruin her hard work?”

“To give her peace of mind?” I pointed at the camera in the hallway that was trained directly on my bedroom door, my eyes burning red.

“So to make her feel safe, you get to spy on me in my own home without a shred of decency? You just watch her use my privacy as a cheap gimmick to sell products to thousands of people?!”

“Do I not even have a basic right to privacy anymore!” I shouted, reaching up to yank the power cord out of the hallway camera.

Ethan tightly clamped down on my wrist, his brow knitted in a hard line.

“If you would stop acting out with this extreme, destructive behavior, these cameras would be nothing more than useless pieces of plastic to you!” Ethan said.

“If you don’t have anything to hide, why are you so afraid of surveillance? Aside from going to work and sleeping in your room, what are you doing out there that’s so scandalous you need to hide it?”

I stared in utter disbelief at the man I had shared a bed with for five years.

“Ethan, this is my house! I am your wife!” I struggled violently, tears pooling in my eyes, though I bit my lip to keep them from falling. “What am I to you now? A dangerous criminal you have to guard against? A prisoner whose changing clothes get put on exhibition for the public?”

“Anna has a fragile psychological state. You’re perfectly healthy, so what kills you to yield a little bit?” Ethan said, refusing to loosen his grip, clamping down even harder.

“As long as you stay in line, I won’t even look at the app password! Why do you always have to make a federal case out of these trivial things and keep this house in constant chaos?”

Looking at Ethan’s indifferent face, my struggles stopped entirely. In this house, I had been turned into a transparent captive, a cheap laughingstock for public amusement.

I stopped talking and simply pulled my hand back from his grip.

“Fine. I won’t pull it out,” I said quietly. “Install as many as you want.”

I turned around and took hold of the master bedroom doorknob, my voice devoid of any emotion. No arguments, no further questions.

“Whatever makes you happy, Ethan.”

The door clicked shut behind me.