I looked toward our backyard.
Jasmine was helping me plant herbs.
For a moment, I felt angry.
Why should we leave a home we'd worked years to purchase simply because one woman enjoyed making us uncomfortable?
I told Leah I wasn't ready to give up.
She agreed.
But she also made me promise that we'd never let a dispute with the HOA become more important than our family's peace.
At the time, I thought I could keep that promise.
The woman who first warned me about Vivian was a retired accountant named Eleanor Bell.
She was sixty-seven, white, with short silver hair, sharp blue eyes, and a habit of carrying a small notebook everywhere she went.
Eleanor had lived in Cedar Grove Estates for fifteen years.
She knew almost every homeowner.
She helped organize holiday food drives.
And for five years, she'd served as the HOA treasurer.
I met her during a neighborhood cleanup event.
She was struggling to move several bags of mulch from the back of her car.
I offered to help.
She smiled.
"Thank you, young man."
I carried the bags to the community garden.
Then returned for the last one.
Eleanor watched me.
"You're the fellow with the vegetable garden, aren't you?"
I laughed.
"Apparently, I'm famous."
She smiled.
"Not for the reasons you deserve."
I looked toward her.
She lowered her voice.
"Vivian doesn't like people who read the regulations."
That surprised me.
"What?"
Eleanor glanced toward the community clubhouse.
Then said, "Most people get a violation notice, feel embarrassed, and pay whatever the management office tells them."
I nodded.
She continued.
"You asked the board to explain its authority. That makes her uncomfortable."
I laughed softly.
"Seems like a reasonable question."
"It is."
She looked toward me.
Then said something that would remain in my mind for years.
"Be careful when a person starts treating reasonable questions as disobedience."
At the time, I assumed Eleanor was describing ordinary HOA politics.
I didn't realize she'd already discovered discrepancies in the association's financial records.
Or that those discrepancies would eventually make her afraid for her safety.
The first major storm occurred during the autumn of our third year in Cedar Grove.
Heavy rain fell for almost two days.
Water collected along the streets.
Several drainage inlets overflowed.
And the common green space behind the eastern row of houses became a shallow temporary lake.
Our property remained mostly dry, but three neighboring homes suffered water damage.
One family's finished basement flooded.
Another homeowner lost expensive furniture.