Chapter 5 - The Sabotage
Ten minutes after Florence stormed out of the apartment, Nora walked back into the living room. Liam was sitting on the edge of the sofa, his head buried in his hands, weeping softly.
Nora ignored him and grabbed her leather bag off the counter. She needed to get fresh air, clear her mind, and meet her attorney, Arthur Pendelton, who was waiting for her at his downtown office to review the property deeds.
“Where are you going?” Liam asked, looking up with red, swollen eyes.
“To see my lawyer,” Nora said flatly. “Do not be here when I return.”
She walked out the apartment door, pressed the elevator button, and descended into the dark, quiet underground parking garage of the building.
The air in the garage was cool and smelled faintly of gasoline and concrete dust. Nora walked down the main central aisle toward space 402. As she got closer, she noticed something unusual: the ceiling lights above her parking spot were flickering, casting strange, jagged shadows across the concrete floor.
Then, she saw it.
Her white Mercedes SUV was shaking violently.
Standing at the rear of the vehicle was Florence.
Florence was holding a heavy, solid-iron emergency fire extinguisher that she had ripped off the parking garage wall. Her face was twisted into a horrific, manic grin. She was swinging the heavy iron cylinder like a sledgehammer, smashing it repeatedly into the luxury vehicle with terrifying, rage-fueled strength.
CRACK!
The rear glass window shattered into thousands of tiny dark crystals, raining down onto the concrete floor.
BANG!
Florence swung the extinguisher into the driver’s side door, leaving a deep, jagged metal trench across the pristine white paint. She raised the heavy iron cylinder again, smashing it directly into the front headlights, shattering the custom LED casing into plastic shards.
Nora stopped dead in her tracks, thirty feet away. Her heart pounded in her throat, but she didn't scream. She didn't run forward to physically stop the woman.
Instead, Nora slowly pulled her iPhone out of her coat pocket, quietly pressed the side key, and activated the high-definition video recording function.
Florence was so consumed by her blind, chaotic fury that she didn't even notice Nora standing in the shadowy aisle behind her.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Florence smashed the side mirrors, stomped on the hood, leaving dented footprints across the metal, and threw the fire extinguisher straight through the front windshield, spider-webbing the thick safety glass into a complete wreck.
Finally, panting heavily, her hair wild and her clothes stained with black grease and shattered glass dust, Florence dropped her arms. She turned around to leave, wiping sweat from her forehead with the back of her wrist.
That was when her eyes met Nora’s.
Florence froze for a fraction of a second, caught off guard. But instead of showing fear or remorse, a terrifying, wicked smile spread across her sweat-stained face. She stepped over the broken glass, walking slowly toward Nora until she was standing just three feet away.
“Oops,” Florence sneered, her voice dripping with cruel, sadistic pleasure. “Looks like someone had a little accident in the parking garage.”
Nora kept her phone held steadily at chest height, her thumb quietly pressing the stop button to save the eight-minute video file directly to her secure cloud storage.
Florence leaned in close, her breath hot and unpleasant against Nora’s ear.
“You think you can ruin my life and just walk away?” Florence whispered savagely. “I’m an old, fragile woman, Nora. Who do you think the police are going to believe when I tell them I saw a masked vandal run out of here? Who’s going to believe you? You have no witnesses. It’s your word against mine, and my son will lie for me until the day he dies.”
Florence smirked, patting Nora’s shoulder condescendingly with her filthy, grease-stained hand. “Let’s see who’s going to believe you.”
Florence turned on her heel and began strutting toward the garage exit stairs, feeling completely victorious, believing she had just utterly humiliated Nora and destroyed her pride.
Nora didn't argue. She didn't yell. She didn't chase after her.
She simply unlocked her phone, brought up her contact list, and tapped the very top name: Arthur Pendelton - Attorney.
Arthur answered on the first ring. “Nora? I’m waiting for you at the office.”
“Arthur,” Nora said, her voice completely smooth, calm, and void of panic. “I’m down in my parking garage. Florence Vance just completely destroyed my vehicle with a fire extinguisher, confessed to it on camera, and threatened me.”
There was a brief, stunned silence on the line before Arthur replied, his legal instincts instantly kicking into overdrive. “Did you capture the entire incident on video?”
“Every single second in 4K resolution,” Nora replied. “Including her face, the action, and her explicit verbal confession right after.”
“Excellent,” Arthur said, his voice cold and precise. “Do not touch anything. Call the police immediately to report felony criminal mischief, grand vandalism, and extortion. I am driving to your location right now. And Nora?”
May you like
“Yes, Arthur?”
“It’s time we pull out that signed legal document from six months ago,” Arthur said grimly. “Florence thinks she just ruined a car… she has no idea she just triggered the absolute forfeiture clause of your marital trust.”
