Chapter 4

I smiled and stood up.

"Get some rest tonight. I'll come pick you up tomorrow and we'll go out, do some shopping, have a real day together."

Mom waved her hands frantically. "No, no. You have work tomorrow. I'll head home first thing in the morning. I've already been enough trouble."

I looked at her, enunciating every word. "Mom, I already took the day off."

"Besides spending time with you, I have some personal things to take care of."

Her expression shifted. "You're not going to start a fight with Connor and his family over what happened today, are you?"

"Please don't—"

I cut her off. "Relax. I'm not going to fight with them."

Fighting with people like that was pointless.

I had a better plan.

Seeing how serious I was, Mom finally relaxed. "Good. As long as you're not fighting."

"As long as you're doing okay, nothing else matters to me."

I didn't say anything else. I went over a few things about the hotel check-in, then left in a hurry.

Outside, I drew in a long breath of night air.

Then I pulled out my phone and dialed the property manager's number.

When the call connected, I got straight to the point. "Glen Chavez, I have a question. How long does the community keep its security camera footage?"

On the other end, Glen answered without hesitation. "Under normal circumstances, three months."

I smiled faintly. "And if someone causes a disturbance on the property, does management intervene?"

He paused for a beat, then assured me, "Of course we do. We have security patrols for exactly that."

"Why? Is someone causing trouble?"

I gave a light laugh. "No, nothing like that. Just asking ahead of time."

After hanging up, I dialed another number.

"Hi, is this the realtor? I want to sell my house."

"I don't care how low the price goes. I only have one condition."