Deborah had arrived five minutes earlier.
She drove her white SUV along the street, slowing as she passed Marcus's house.
His pickup was visible near the driveway.
Several tools stood beside the garage.
She glanced toward the neighboring cream-colored house.
Marcus had spent much of the morning working there.
She'd seen him carrying materials, speaking with Daniel, and entering through the side gate.
To Deborah, that confirmed the assumption she'd been making for months.
This was his second property.
A place he controlled.
A place she could frighten him without confronting him directly.
She parked farther down the street and walked back carrying her HOA clipboard and a heavy concrete landscaping block she'd obtained from her own property.
She wore a pale-pink blouse, beige trousers, and brown flats.
The outfit looked ordinary enough for a neighborhood visit.
But there was nothing ordinary about what she intended to do.
She approached the garden gate.
It was closed.
She checked the street.
No one appeared to be watching.
Then she forced the gate open and entered the side yard.
The cream-colored siding rose beside her.
A white-framed window overlooked the narrow walkway.
Beyond the glass was a child's bedroom decorated with pale colors and small astronomy pictures.
Deborah barely looked inside.
She wasn't thinking about who might sleep there.
She was thinking about Marcus.
About the audit.
About the humiliating questions.
And about how frightened she wanted him to feel when he discovered the damage.
She raised the block.
For one brief moment, she hesitated.
Then she hurled it toward the glass.
The window shattered.
Fragments scattered across the flowerbed.
The concrete block crashed into the bedroom.
And Deborah's entire future changed.
Marcus heard the impact from his driveway.
He'd been unloading a toolbox when the sound cut through the afternoon.
At first, he thought someone had dropped a heavy object.
Then he heard glass falling.
He turned toward Daniel's house.
A figure in a pale-pink blouse stood near the rear window.
Marcus recognized Deborah immediately.
For one terrible second, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Then he ran.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Deborah turned toward him.
Her face was flushed.
But instead of retreating, she straightened and began shouting.
She accused him of violating HOA regulations.
Claimed he deserved the consequences.
And behaved as though her title somehow justified destroying someone's property.
Marcus stopped beside the window.
He saw the damage.
The broken glass.
And the concrete block lying inside Emily's bedroom.
His stomach dropped.
He'd helped install the shelves in that room.
He knew where the girl's desk stood.