Chapter 10: The Decoy

At nine o'clock the next morning, the committee came through my front door.

They had the manager's master key, and the whole committee poured into my apartment behind Declan's mother.

I watched all of it from my field, on three small screens.

Britt led the way, in a clean white sweater, pointing at things.

"The kitchen first," she said. "She hid it in the kitchen."

They tore through every cabinet.

They found a box of tea bags, a salt shaker and one half-empty jar of mustard.

Declan opened the new refrigerator with both hands and stared into it.

There was a lightbulb and nothing else.

"She bought a two-thousand-dollar fridge," he said slowly, "to keep one jar of mustard."

A man behind him started laughing, and a woman shushed him.

I laughed into my sleeve in my tiny house and stopped when my chicks looked up.

Britt's smile slipped.

"That's not right. She had food. She had five years of food."

"Five years?" Declan's mother said sharply. "How do you know?"

Britt swallowed.

"I mean a lot. She buys a lot. She buys in bulk."

Declan's mother looked at her for one long second before she turned away.

I filed that look away for later.

They emptied every cupboard.

They flipped the mattress, and they dumped my dresser drawers onto the floor.

Declan carried out the loose rugs, the lamps and my coffee machine.

Two neighbors unbolted the wind turbine from the balcony and wheeled it away on a cart.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Selfish Sister: A Second Chance at Retribution? from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.