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Did you borrow a silver clutch? The Prada one? Co-op? No.
Why are you even asking? She sounded offended. "I can't find it anywhere. The solution is that maybe she lent it to you and then forgot about it. Mina, she loaned me a Prada bag; I'm sure she remembered it because of it, and the answer is, I'm not irresponsible. Okay. Okay. Sorry. I must have put it somewhere. Maybe it got accidentally thrown away."
She suggested that you did a lot of preparation for the new year. It's good that you can do that. I did a huge cleanup and threw away a lot of things. It's possible that a container got mixed up somewhere. I ended up buying another one for the future, but it irritated me. That silver clutch left me $800. Life went on. Another few weeks passed. A more detailed solution can be implemented next quarter, as we entered the final quarter.
I basically lived in the space, usually around 8:00 or 9:00 PM. Weekends were for catching up on laundry and sleeping in. Then came the incident with the watch. My grandparents, my mother's parents, gave me this watch as a gift from my college application. It wasn't super expensive, like a Rolex or something, but it was beautiful. A Swissade, a classic design.
What's important, important to them, and they both passed away a few years ago. I kept it at home, in a desk drawer, in its traditional use. I didn't wear it often, but I liked knowing it was there. One Saturday, while doing a thorough cleanup. You know, the kind where you move furniture and vacuum behind it. I was organizing the desk drawers, when you create a drawer with a watch box.
The box was there. The watch was gone. I stood there like an idiot, staring at the empty box. If anyone had any objections, it would take a long time to get it into my system. I tore up my entire office, rewired my desk, ran every drawer three times, and looked in every room in the house. The watch was gone. I made myself a cup of coffee and took the day to really tell.
First, a friend told me someone had been in my house. Then a lost purse. Now a lost watch. Once by accident, twice by coincidence, three times as a pattern. Access to my belongings. But how? The house was always locked. There was an alarm system. There were those who had keys, there were my parents, who had a spare.
I gave it to them when I bought the house four years ago. In case of an emergency, I said, "No way. My family wouldn't rob me, right?" Then I remembered the cameras. I opened my laptop and logged into the app. All the recordings were stored in the cloud for 90 days. I started reviewing the data, looking for anything suspicious.
Three days ago, while I was at work, a motion sensor triggered the camera by the front door at 2:47 PM. I clicked on the recording. Two people approached my front door. They used a key to open it. They walked in as if they owned the house. I zoomed in on their faces, even though I already knew who they were: Emma and Tyler.
I sat staring at my laptop screen, watching my sister and her husband walk through my house as if they were permanent residents. My hands were shaking. The time on the screen read 2:47 PM on Wednesday. I was at work for a budget meeting. They knew I'd be at work. Of course they did. I watched Emma go straight to my bedroom, and Tyler walk into the living room.
She was going through my closet, taking things out and examining them. She lifted a sweater and showed it to Tyler as he entered. They were talking and laughing. In my bedroom, she was going through my things and laughing. She put the sweater in the bag she'd brought with her. Then she went over to my jewelry box on the dresser. I watched her rummage through it, selecting things and showing them to Tyler as if they were shopping at a store. I felt nauseous.
I scrolled further. Two weeks earlier, another visit. This time they stayed longer, maybe 40 minutes. Emma was wandering through my home office while Tyler checked the garage. I saw her open the desk drawer, take out a watch case, and look at the watch. She called Tyler. He glanced at it, nodded, and she put it in her bag. I continued scrolling.
Another visit, three weeks earlier. That day, it felt like someone was in my house. This time, they were there for over an hour. Emma searched my bathroom cabinets, kitchen drawers, and even the laundry room. She grabbed a bottle of perfume, some makeup, and a pair of running shoes I barely wore.
The handbag—I found those pictures too—six weeks ago. Emma tried it on and posed with it in front of my mirror, and Tyler gave her a thumbs-up. Then it went into their bag. How long did it take?
I reviewed the first available recordings. They'd been coming in for a week after I installed the cameras. Maybe even longer, but I would never have known about them before they were installed.
I created a spreadsheet. Yes, I know. The CFO goes to the finance department. But I had to document everything. Date, time
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