Celia was crying outside the door.
“Daniel, please don't be like this. Spring is just jealous of me, that's all.”
Daniel slammed his fist against the door again.
“Did you hear that? Cece is STILL defending you! You sell furniture for a living and you think you're better than everyone? You've got the nerve to talk about calling off the engagement? You're nothing! Manager James said the system had a minor glitch. Your unit's the penthouse, so it's got the highest-level homeowner access. Hand over the admin account and let Cece restore everyone's passwords!”
“You hear me? Open the door! If anything goes wrong, it's ALL on you!”
I stood on the other side of the door and kept my voice cold.
“The homeowner portal only controls my own door lock. The penthouse isn't a server. What do you think my lock is, some kind of master key to the whole building?”
Daniel choked on that for a second, then came back even nastier.
“Cut the act. You're just jealous that Cece is popular. You'd love it if the whole building went to hell!”
Celia sniffled softly.
“Spring, if you really hate me that much, take it out on me. Don't punish everyone else just to make a point.”
I was speechless. I hadn't done a single thing, and somehow I was the one punishing everyone?
How was any of this my fault?
Right then, Yvette sent me a voice message. Her voice cracked from crying.
“Spring! Someone got into my unit! The wedding jewelry I kept in the master bedroom drawer is gone!”
“Someone broke in! My money, my things!”
More and more homeowners flooded the group chat, crying about stolen belongings, demanding that Celia come out and explain herself.
Seconds later, Manager James posted a warning.
“Everyone calm down. This falls under an internal test during the handover event. Any homeowner who contacts the police and causes reputational damage to the community will be held liable by property management!”
Celia followed up immediately with a crying emoji.
“Please don't call the police, okay? I'm really scared.”
Unbelievably, people in the chat actually comforted her.
“Don't be scared, Cece. Yvette probably just misremembered where she put them.”
“Exactly. If Spring Calloway had just helped out earlier, none of this would've happened.”
Manager James seized the opening and turned the target straight onto me.
“The system is about to lock down. Nobody touch anything. As long as Miss Calloway is willing to hand over the admin account, there's still a chance to fix this!”
The next second, a wall of messages slammed in.
“Spring Calloway, stop being selfish! We're all neighbors! Open your door and let Cece in to figure this out!”
“This is YOUR fault! If you'd just helped Cece, none of this would've gotten this bad!”
A notification blasted across my phone screen.
“Suspected large-scale temporary password breach detected in Building 18. Security lockdown initiated ahead of schedule. All batch password-change channels closed. Temporary passwords frozen. Homeowners must present valid ID for individual unit resets. Activity logs have been forwarded to the security department.”
The group chat erupted into total chaos.
“My family was supposed to move in TONIGHT and now the door won't open!”
“My parents are trapped inside and their phone is dead! Who's going to let them out?!”
“My wedding jewelry is GONE! Who's going to answer for this?!”
Celia sent a sobbing voice message.
“I said it from the start. If Spring had just lent us the admin account, the system never would have locked down. She could've saved everyone, but she hates me so much she dragged it out on purpose.”
Daniel kicked the door again.
“Spring Calloway, did you hear that?! Cece can barely breathe because of you! Hand over the account NOW. There's still time!”
I spoke through the door.
“Are you an idiot? I'm a homeowner. The admin account was never with me!”
“Shut the hell up!” His voice was raw from screaming. “If you don't hand over that account today, I'll break this door down!”
