Two:

I sat on the living room couch all night, wound tight and unable to settle, and by morning I finally understood something. There's no such thing as "take a step back and the sky opens up." Take a step back and all you get is an ulcer.

If Penelope Lawrence was going to fight this dirty, then I couldn't keep playing the pushover.

So the next morning I didn't even eat breakfast. I went straight to the building management office.

One look at me and their faces fell.

"Ms. Edwards, the doorbell thing, there's honestly nothing we can do about it."

"Everybody knows Penelope Lawrence stays home all day. You've gotten on her bad side, and she's got all the time in the world to keep at it."

"It's not that we won't help you. But grudges are better untangled than tightened. She's only targeting you, so you must have crossed her somewhere. The more we step in, the more she'll take it out on you."

I knew all that already.

From the very first time Penelope buzzed my keypad, I'd gone to management. But whether they were just smoothing it over or whatever they were doing, it only got worse.

So I nodded.

"You've misunderstood me. That's not what I meant."

"I came to buy a few entry keycards to give her. Take a step back, let the sky open up."

They didn't say much. They just sold me a few keycards, wearing a slightly odd expression.

But the moment I left, the people in the office started talking.

【You think this move of Ms. Edwards' is going to work?】

【No chance. Did you forget the last owner? He paid out of his own pocket to install facial-recognition entry in their stairwell, and Penelope Lawrence still flat-out refused to register her face, remember?】

【Back then she said it was collecting her personal privacy, called the police, ripped the facial-recognition unit off the wall, smashed it, and threw it in his face.】

【That's exactly why that owner, Mr. Delaney, chose to sell the place cheap. I'm telling you, going over there to hand her keycards is a waste of time!】

【Can't blame me for not warning her. Point is, if we actually help this Ms. Edwards, that lunatic will come after us next, won't she?】

...

That was when I understood. Management had been on Penelope's side the whole time.

Not that it was surprising.

Between me and Penelope Lawrence, one is a teacher you can reason with, the other a stay-at-home mom who makes scenes over nothing. Anyone can tell which one is safe to offend and which one isn't.

And I knew handing over keycards was a waste of time.

But if I was going to fight back, I had to start here.

When I handed Penelope the keycards, all polite and pleasant, she looked a little surprised. But once she heard why I'd come, her whole face lit up smug.

"All right, all right. I really wasn't doing it on purpose. I honestly just kept forgetting my keycard."

"Since you've given me this many cards, I definitely won't buzz your door anymore. From now on we'll be good neighbors."

I didn't believe a word of it.

But I thanked her over and over anyway and left.

And it played out exactly as I'd guessed. I gave her five keycards, so five days later, Penelope was buzzing my keypad at two in the morning again.

"Oh, Ms. Edwards, look at me. Pregnancy really does turn your brain to mush for years. Those cards you gave me, I went and lost them."

"Tell you what, just let me in tonight, and tomorrow I'll go to management myself for replacements. I promise I'll never bother you again, okay?"

Of course I knew she was doing it on purpose.

Because I knew for a fact those five keycards had been sold back to management at full price the very first day she got them.

So this time.

I didn't hesitate at all. I dialed the police.

"Hello, I'd like to report a crime."

"Someone is deliberately harassing residents. It's serious."

Three:

The officer responded fast. By the time Penelope had rung my keycard buzzer for the tenth time, he was already there.

I still didn't open the door.

I went straight downstairs instead, and explained everything to the officer.

"It's ten past two in the morning right now, and this woman, Penelope Lawrence, has been leaning on my buzzer nonstop, not letting my whole family get any peace."

"I looked it up online. This counts as disturbing the peace."

Penelope clearly hadn't expected me to call the police, so she started explaining, all wounded innocence.

"This is so unfair to me."

"I only went down to take out the trash and forgot my keycard, that's all."

"I know Teacher Edwards stays up late, so I rang the bell to have her help me open the door. How does that turn into disturbing the peace?"

"Teacher Edwards, a good neighbor is worth more than a distant relative. If you didn't want to open the door for me, you could've just said so. Why call the police and trouble the officer over it? Isn't that a waste of police resources?"

I'd already guessed Penelope would twist things like this.

So I pulled out the evidence I'd prepared in advance.

"This is proof of every time Penelope has rung my bell over the past month."

"These are the chat logs where I begged her, more than once, to stop ringing my bell. And this—this is the video of me going out a few days ago to buy her a keycard on purpose and hand it over."

At that point,

Penelope's expression flickered.

But she still opened her mouth.

"Yes, I rang your bell, but that's because you agreed beforehand that you'd open the door for me."

"Besides, all those keycards are—"

I knew she was about to say she'd lost them.

So I took out my phone again.

"The footage from the desk is crystal clear. On day one you turned that keycard right back into cash."

"And do you dare turn out your pockets and let us all see whether you actually brought a keycard or not?"

Facing my questions and the officer's stare,

Penelope finally started to panic.

But she didn't care about her dignity at all. She just dropped straight onto the floor and started wailing.

"I'm only a stay-at-home mom. I've fallen out of touch with the world, that's all."

"Why do you have to bully a stay-at-home mom like me? You think you're something special because you're a teacher?"

"I just rang a doorbell. How is that against the law?"

Penelope cried hard.

Before long she'd drawn over the building management and the neighbors from the same building.

I grabbed the neighbors and the management to back me up as witnesses.

But they wouldn't even look at me.

【Teacher Edwards, aren't you blowing this way out of proportion? Ringing a buzzer, and you go and call the police over it?】

【We're all neighbors here, just helping each other out. You're taking this too far.】

【Right, everyone knows your family stays up late every night.】

Even the management stood there and lied through their teeth.

"The bell thing is just a misunderstanding. Ms. Lawrence never sold any keycard back to us. That day she came in to pay her HOA fees, that's all. It was nothing like that."

"All that so-called evidence is AI-generated. This complex has always been like one big family. She's the only one who likes to stir up trouble."

I got shouted down from every direction.

I didn't even get a chance to speak or push back.

And Penelope knew exactly how to play the sweet one.

"I promise you, I'll never ring your bell again, okay?"

The officer more or less understood the situation, but just like Penelope said, ringing a doorbell isn't illegal, so all they could do was advise me and offer suggestions.

"How about this. Tomorrow you turn off your bell, or set it to silent."

"If that really doesn't work, your only option is to take her to court."

I had nothing left to say. All I could do was follow the officer's advice and set my buzzer to silent.

I'd figured that once I called the police and made a scene of it, things would be over, even if not on friendly terms.

But I never expected it.

Only a few days later, Penelope came up with a brand-new trick.

Four:

At two in the morning she rang my doorbell. My chime was muted, so I heard nothing. When she saw I wouldn't answer, she went down the row and rang the entry buzzer for every single unit in the building.

She woke the whole building. And the neighbors knew about the war between me and Penelope Lawrence.

So of course they pinned it all on me.

"Teacher Edwards, isn't this a bit much on your part? Do you really need the entire building to lose sleep along with you?"

"What would it cost you to just open the door? It's summer break anyway. Worst case you nap during the day, right?"

"You get your peace and quiet, but what about the rest of us?"

I didn't respond at all.

They hadn't stood by me before, so I had no reason to spare them any thought. I waited until the next day and posted one line in the group chat: Every debt has a debtor. Take it up with the person who did it. Why come at me?

They were furious.

And once Penelope saw that turning the building against me wasn't working, she switched tactics.

She still rang my doorbell.

When it wouldn't sound, she started calling and texting me. When I didn't reply, she let herself out, came up, and pounded on my door.

I forced myself to leave it alone.

Figuring she'd get tired and go home.

Instead Penelope pulled out her phone and called the police. Called an ambulance.

And she explained it to me with a completely straight face.

"Teacher Edwards, I saw your lights on but you wouldn't open up, and you weren't answering my messages, so I worried something had happened to you."

"I was so worried about you. That's the only reason I did it. I did it for your own good. You wouldn't blame me for that, would you?"

"I mean, I never imagined you'd be so cruel, sitting at home and deliberately staying silent."

And it wasn't just Penelope saying it.

In the building group chat, one after another tagged me, blaming me for playing dead, telling me to be more considerate from now on...

All I could do was explain the situation to the officer.

Picturing the triumph in Penelope's eyes, I sat there dry-eyed until dawn again, and finally made up my mind to strike back one last time.

I bought tickets for my husband and daughter and sent them ahead to our hometown.

My husband wouldn't go.

"Forget it. Let's just sell the place and leave."

I shook my head.

"Have you forgotten what our daughter's preschool teacher told us?"

"Our daughter used to be cheerful and lively, and now she's like a startled bird. The tiniest noise at school terrifies her. If I walk away now, she'll be like this for the rest of her life."

"For her sake, I have to fight back."

There was nothing he could do but listen to me and get on the plane.

Once Penelope saw me send my husband and daughter off, she looked a little smug.

"Perfect. On your own you'll make an even better doorman."

"But watch yourself. Don't go bringing shady men home and keeping me waiting at the door."

"And if you still won't open up tonight, I won't just call the police. I'll call an ambulance, the fire trucks, the works. It's all for your own good, of course."

I just smiled.

"Ms. Lawrence, take my advice. Don't ring my doorbell tonight."

Penelope rolled her eyes and ignored me.

I went home too, and started getting ready for tonight's showdown.

Once I was ready, I took my medication and went to sleep. I slept straight through until half past one in the morning, a full nine hours.

I ate while I waited for the clock to crawl toward two.

At 1:59 I put in earplugs, then pulled on the best noise-canceling headphones I could find, and looked at Penelope on the video doorbell screen and smiled.

Penelope seemed to sense me too.

She smiled back at the camera, then reached out one finger and pressed my entry buzzer.

The next second.

A blood-curdling scream tore through the entire complex!