I thought about it for a moment. Then I typed three words and hit send.
We’ll be there.
Part Nine:simo The HOA Meeting
The HOA meeting was held in the community room by the pool, the same room where we normally argued about parking rules and holiday decorations. That night, it was fuller than I’d ever seen it. Word had gotten around.
Vanessa spoke first.
She stood at the front of the room in a soft gray cardigan, her voice gentle and a little shaky. She described herself as a lonely woman, newly divorced, who had moved into a new neighborhood hoping for a fresh start. She said she had gratefully accepted help from a kind neighbor, and had then been publicly humiliated in her own backyard by his jealous wife.
She mentioned, regretfully, that my bakery had been operating in violation of city rules. And she referred to the screenshots she had “reluctantly” shared.
