He Locked The AC At Sixteen While I Bled In Pain Chapter 04

He Locked The AC At Sixteen While I Bled In Pain Chapter 04

Ethan was left standing in the hallway alone, his frown deepening by the second. Under the watchful glare of those blinking red security lights, I began a silent, total withdrawal.

When I reached the front door the next evening, I habitually pressed my thumb against the biometric lock.

“Fingerprint incorrect,” a cold, mechanical female voice chirped.

I blinked, taking a step back to let the lock scan my face.

“Face unrecognized,” the automated system blared into the quiet hallway. “Hello, guest. Please ring the doorbell to contact the homeowner.”

A guest?

I stared at the door I had walked through for five long years. Just yesterday, this very door would chime with a cheerful greeting: “Welcome home, ma’am.”

The door was pulled open from the inside. Anna stood there, looking entirely innocent.

“Nadia, you’re home from work?”

Ethan was sitting on the couch reviewing corporate files. Hearing the noise, he didn’t even bother to look up.

“Ethan, why were my fingerprint and facial recognition deleted?” I stood outside the threshold. I didn’t yell; I just asked him, my voice dead calm.

Ethan’s hand paused over the paperwork. He turned his head to look at me standing outside, his tone matching someone delivering a trivial piece of weather trivia.

“You used your master account to mess with the AC before. I’m worried you’ll throw another fit with the smart home system and make Anna sick,” Ethan said, closing the folder and standing up. He walked over to Anna, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

“To prevent you from snipping cords or altering the temperature in the middle of the night, I transferred the master admin privileges of the entire property to Anna, along with the master passcode,” Ethan continued. “From now on, you’ll have to use a guest code to come and go.”

“The passcode is Anna’s birthday. She has a hard time remembering complicated numbers.”

I quietly observed the two people standing before me. I watched the man I had loved for five years completely strip away my rights to my own home on a digital level, all for a woman who might break out in hives from the heat.

In his eyes, I was a ticking time bomb poised to destroy his system, while Anna was the new owner of the residence.

“I’m a guest?” I asked, listening to the hollow echo of my own voice.

“It’s just an access privilege. Why are you being so pedantic?” Ethan scowled, clearly exasperated by my refusal to drop the subject. “As long as you behave yourself, what difference does it make who holds the admin account? Do you have to pick a fight right at this moment?”

Seeing how reasonable he thought he was being, my eyes stung, but I didn’t let the tears fall.

He was right. What difference did it make anymore? The moment he handed those exclusive privileges to another woman, the moment he righteously demanded his legal wife enter her own home using another woman’s birthday as a guest code, this place ceased to be my home.

“Okay,” I whispered.

Before Ethan’s startled eyes, I raised my hand and punched Anna’s birthday into the keypad.

“Welcome, guest,” the lock chimed.

The door clicked open. It was the first time, and it would be the last time, that I crossed that threshold as a visitor into this frozen wasteland.

That night, the sounds of Ethan and Anna laughing over a movie drifted out from the guest bedroom. I walked into the master bathroom and took a long, hot shower. The steaming water washed over my exhausted body, flushing away every ounce of my five-year obsession.

At four o’clock in the morning, I gently pushed the front door open. I cast a final glance at the blinking security camera.

Goodbye, Ethan. I hope you enjoy the gift I left for you.