And she decided to make him stop.
The first attempt was administrative.
Notices.
Threatened fines.
Claims that his pool was unsanitary.
But Andre kept responding with documentation.
He didn't get into shouting matches.
Didn't ignore official letters.
And didn't agree to demands simply because Cynthia signed them as HOA president.
That made him harder to intimidate.
Meanwhile, the city investigation continued.
Rosa's team still had work to complete before identifying every component of the unauthorized arrangement.
But the evidence was becoming increasingly difficult for Cynthia to explain.
The drainage reports didn't match the guesthouse's approved plumbing records.
The warnings from Tomas Rivera existed.
And a series of wastewater complaints corresponded with periods when the property was being used more heavily.
Cynthia feared that a full inspection would expose the unauthorized work.
She also feared something else.
The money.
Because the wastewater arrangement hadn't been paid for entirely from her personal funds.
Some of the expenses had been buried inside Magnolia Ridge's HOA budget.
And the records she used to justify those payments were about to become much more dangerous than the defective plumbing itself.
Harold Pierce first noticed the unusual spending in the association's annual financial summary.
He wasn't the treasurer.
But he had decades of experience evaluating insurance and risk-management documentation.
He knew how emergency expenses were supposed to be supported.
And he had a habit of reading the notes beneath the totals.
The summary showed a noticeable increase in common-area drainage maintenance.
Nearly forty thousand dollars had been spent over several months on inspection, temporary stabilization, and emergency repair coordination.
That seemed excessive for a neighborhood with a relatively small stormwater corridor.
Harold requested the invoices.
The management company sent several documents.
Some described work near the eastern drainage easement.
Others referred to inspections performed by Vale Property Services.
Harold recognized the surname.
He asked whether the vendor was connected to Cynthia's family.
The management representative said the relationship hadn't been identified in the documents they received.
Harold frowned.
He requested the board approval records.
Several payments had been presented as urgent work authorized through the president's delegated authority.
Others appeared in meeting summaries that Harold didn't remember discussing.
He checked his calendar.
Compared attendance records.
And reviewed his personal notes.
Something didn't match.
At one board meeting, Cynthia claimed the directors had unanimously approved a drainage stabilization contract.
But Harold had been present.
He remembered the discussion.
The board had authorized an initial assessment of the common drainage corridor.
Not an open-ended series of payments to a vendor connected to the president's family.
He asked Cynthia for clarification.
She became defensive.
“Harold, these matters were discussed.”