Chapter 4 - The Scavengers Scatter
For the next two hours, the apartment was a whirlwind of frantic activity, humiliated tears, and slammed doors.
Brenda shrieked, cursed, and threatened lawsuits that her meager pension could never afford, but Sergeant Miller and his partner stood guard in the hallway, ensuring every single one of her belongings was packed into her oversized suitcases and dragged out the front door. She tried to play the victim one last time, looking at the neighbors who had stepped out into the hallway to watch the spectacle, but nobody offered her sympathy. Her toxic manipulation had finally caught up with her in broad daylight.
Brandon moved much slower, his movements sluggish and dazed as he packed his clothes into a duffel bag. He kept glancing at me, hoping for a softening of my expression, a flash of hesitation, or a sign that this was all just an extreme bargaining tactic.
I didn't blink. I didn't offer a single word of comfort. I stood by the kitchen island, watching him dismantle the meager footprint he had left in my life.
When he finally zipped his bag and walked toward the door, he stopped with his hand on the frame.
"You'll regret this, Maya," he muttered, trying desperately to salvage a shred of his shattered ego. "Without me, you're nothing. Nobody else will put up with you."
"Maybe," I replied quietly, looking him straight in the eye. "But at least I'll be sleeping in my own home, with my own dignity intact."
With a defeated sigh, Brandon stepped out into the hallway, pulling the door shut behind him.
The click of the lock turning from the inside was the most glorious sound I had ever heard.
Within minutes, the apartment was entirely empty of them. The lingering negative energy, the constant suffocating criticism, the oppressive anxiety that had weighed down my shoulders for months—it all vanished, sucked out of the rooms like smoke clearing after a fire.
I walked over to the large living room window, pulling back the heavy drapes to let the afternoon sunlight flood across the hardwood floors. Down on the street below, I watched through the glass as Brenda and Brandon stood on the sidewalk beside a pile of cheap suitcases, arguing furiously while waiting for a budget ride-share.
May you like
They were finally gone. Out of my home. Out of my life.
My phone buzzed on the counter. It was an email notification from Arthur’s office confirming that the emergency property injunction had been permanently filed, securing my apartment in my sole name with zero legal encumbrances.
