Natalie’s furious voice echoed through the house.
“Patricia, why did you lock the door?”
“Patricia, if you don’t answer me, I’m calling the police.”
After unlocking the safety latch, the door was kicked open with a loud bang. Natalie let out a long sigh of relief, seeing I was unharmed.
“Mom, why are you so anxious?”
Meeting my questioning gaze, she replied guiltily, “Of course I’m anxious when you don’t answer me. Why did you lock the door?”
Hearing her words’ accusation, I coldly retorted, “I didn’t lock the door. I guess there was a programming error that locked it automatically.”
“Impossible! This is the smartest door lock on the market. There’s no way the program could have been wrong. You must have locked it on purpose!” She carefully examined the lock
“This is my bedroom. It’s okay for me to lock the door to change clothes. Mom, what are you so tense about? Did Lorenzo send you specifically to spy on me?”
Hearing the accusation hidden in my playful tone, she looked up guiltily. Her eyes darted nervously at me.
“Silly child, what nonsense are you talking about? I quit my job to take care of you and the baby. How could that be called spying?”
Fearing my questions, she hurried outside to test the lock. The door slammed shut with a click. I immediately activated the interference program. The lock engaged automatically. No matter how hard she rattled it, she couldn’t open it.
“Damn it, the lock’s actually malfunctioning! Patricia, don’t be scared. I will call someone to fix it.”
The moment she closed her bedroom door, I activated the program again, locking her inside.
“Oh my God, this door is broken too?”
Listening to her pounding on the door, I offered a few casual reassurances. I uploaded the prepared video footage to the cloud database linked to the home security cameras.
When the four words “Transfer Complete” appeared on the large screen, I deactivated the automatic lock on my bedroom door.
I tiptoed toward Lorenzo’s study. Sure enough, my hunch was correct.
Sensing something was amiss, Natalie hurriedly sought Lorenzo’s help. Perhaps even the heavens were aiding me, she made numerous calls, but no one answered.
Upon entering Lorenzo’s study, I headed straight for the safe concealed behind the mural. Earlier, when I brought him coffee in the study, I’d caught him opening the safe to put something away.
At the time, he’d flown into a rage at me, as if his secret had been exposed. I’d naively assumed he was upset because I hadn’t knocked and had disrupted his work.
I never suspected the safe contained anything shameful. Staring at the intricate code prompts, I fell deep in thought.
Several combinations flashed through my mind, but I dared not attempt them lightly. Such a sophisticated safe would trigger an alarm at the slightest incorrect entry.
If Lorenzo sensed something amiss, not only would all my prior efforts be wasted, but I might also panic and perform an early cesarean. Both my life and the baby’s would be ruined.
Thinking of this outcome, I forced myself to stay calm and took a deep breath. Watching Natalie dial the phone repeatedly, I knew time was running out.
My hands trembling, I entered the most likely combination. When the indicator light turned green, I exhaled a long breath.
It seemed Lorenzo, like Rachel, desperately wanted the child’s heart growing inside me. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have set the safe password to 2025.02.14.
After failing to reach Lorenzo, Natalie turned to call the locksmith company. Anticipating this move, I had preemptively installed a call-blocking program on her phone.
She couldn’t make any other calls except for Lorenzo’s number. To avoid arousing suspicion, I set the block to last only 15 minutes.
