May wasn't having it.

"What do you mean, nanny?"

"I'm going to be a city woman, a professional. I'm not playing some maid who waits on people hand and foot!"

"The only reason I want to go out and get a job is because I've spent so long waiting on all of you!"

Kerry shot her a look.

"Shut up!"

"What's so bad about being a nanny?"

"You go out to work, who cooks the meals around here? Who sweeps the floors? Who watches the kid?"

"You work as a nanny downstairs, and you can still take care of things at home. It's the best arrangement there is."

May shrank back a little, almost cowed.

But the moment she turned to look at me, her whole expression changed.

"Fine. I can be a nanny."

"But besides what I already said in the group chat, I have a few other conditions!"

"Our place is only a third the size of yours, so if you want me to be your nanny, then my husband, my son, and I all have to move into your apartment!"

"That way we can rent our place out, and we'll have rent money coming in too!"

"And if you let us move in, I'll take less in wages. Not twenty thousand a month, just eighteen thousand will do."

The more May talked, the more brilliant she thought she was. She even had the gall to demand my master bedroom, her reasoning being that a south-facing room would help her rest better, so she could take proper care of me.

Honestly, I'd come thinking that if I could reason with them, I'd still rather keep the peace. I really did like living in that apartment.

But seeing the state of these two, I nearly laughed out of pure fury.

My voice climbed a good deal louder.

"Out of the question."

"I don't need royalty like you for a nanny. I came here to ask you one thing, are you going to keep it down or not?"

"I suggest you think it through before you answer, because this is the last chance I'm giving you."

The words had barely left my mouth.

And the call from building management came through.

"Ms. Edwards, where are you right now? Quite a few neighbors have called in to complain that you're making noise in the hallway in the middle of the night."

I was livid.

"When May had her son jumping rope and bouncing a basketball, how come you never listened to my complaints?"

"I say one sentence in the hallway, and suddenly there's a complaint?"

The man on the line sighed, insisting over and over that he really had received complaints.

I didn't answer.

I just hung up.

May had heard the voice on the other end too.

Seeing the confusion on my face.

She gave a smug little smile.

"Let me be straight with you."

"I'm not stingy like you. I've already told the neighbors that if you give me a job and I'm earning money, I'll cut every one of them a little something every month!"

"So if you actually want to go on living comfortably in this complex, your only option is to agree to give me a job."

"Otherwise..."

"You can just sit back and watch that apartment of yours become worthless!"

With that.

May shut the door in my face.

I stood there in the hallway, my phone buzzing without a break.

Building management telling me to keep it down.

Other owners adding me on WhatsApp, calling me, telling me not to lose my mind in the dead of night.

So this was what people meant by a disaster you never saw coming.

But I hadn't come this time to compromise on anything. I'd come to give May one last chance, and since she didn't want it, there was no reason for me to hesitate.

I didn't knock again.

I picked up my phone and made a call, then grabbed my suitcase and left.

As I drove off, I saw that May had posted the photo she'd secretly taken of me in the group chat, as if mocking my helplessness and showing off her own little scheme.

That good mood didn't even last a week.

A week later.

The group chat blew up.

And the calls from building management came one after another.

"Ms. Edwards, please come back right away."

"We all understand what you've been through, and May's willing to work things out. Just come back first."