Chapter 1
Scorching summer heat.
My boyfriend’s ex moved into my house.
I came back from a business trip and found her wearing my favorite shorts and T-shirt, her bare feet
pressing down on the stuffed puppy plush I always sleep with.
My closet door had been pried open, my jewelry and purses gone, and she’d taped it shut so I couldn’t open
She ate my food, drank my drinks, used my things-and even took the chicken stew my mom had mailed me.
I called the cops on the spot.
She faked being mentally unstable, and my boyfriend stood there vouching for her, begging the officers to
let it slide.
Alright. Fine.
I looked down at the micro-camera feed on my phone, watching every online order she’d placed with my
account.
She wants to act crazy?
Then she can’t blame me when I stop playing nice.
Early June, the city was in the middle of a brutal heat wave.
Power grids were failing, old apartment complexes kept losing electricity, and my boyfriend’s ex, Rachel, had just moved out of her place-straight into ours.
At first, I didn’t know she was his ex.
I thought she was some childhood friend from his hometown, so I treated her like family.
But the way she interacted with Peter… was off.
When Peter and I curled up on the couch watching TV, she’d casually head to the kitchen, slice up some fruit, and plop down right next to him-chatting away, eating together, totally ignoring me on the other end
of the couch.
18:59
Walgreens Notified Me About His Plan B’ Purchase So I Ungraded Him to ‘Plan Bankruptcy
5.0%
Chapter 1
If Peter and I played an online game together, she’d just hop into the party like it was hers, lock onto Peter’s role in the game, and leave me stranded in the lane to get wiped out over and over.
After a couple of matches like that, I’d log off-but she’d keep playing with him for hours.
Even our dates somehow became “three-person outings.”
She’d walk beside Peter, laughing and teasing him, while I trailed behind juggling work calls like a third
wheel.
When we shopped, sales associates would compliment them as if they were the couple-“You two look
perfect together”-and Rachel wouldn’t correct them.
she’d just bat her lashes at Peter and smile.
Only when my expression turned icy would Peter finally clear his throat and say, “Uh, actually, she’s my
girlfriend.”
‘m not stupid.
After enough of these little scenes, I put the pieces together.
hat night, I cornered Peter before bed.
He looked guilty, eyes darting everywhere but at me.
Before I lost my patience, he finally confessed: Rachel was his ex.
My temper exploded.
You bring your ex to live in your girlfriend’s home?
What do you think you are-some kind of gold-plated celebrity everyone wants a piece of?
told him flatly, “She leaves. You have twenty-four hours.”
Peter’s face flushed red, but he nodded.
planned to watch her pack her crap and walk out, but the next morning I got called on an urgent business гір.
I threw my stuff together and rushed to the airport, figuring Peter could handle it.
I thought that would be the end of it.
Big mistake.
18:59
Walgreens Notified Me About His ‘Plan B’ Purchase… So I Upgraded Him to ‘Plan Bankruptcy
5.4%
