KATALINA
Fuck!
He came back early.
I wasn’t expecting him to return early.
Whenever Huracio wanted to leave the house, I had to act the dutiful, loving wife role. I pack him a box of sandwiches, and a mug of coffee, and accompany him to his car, where I will then kiss him goodbye.
When he returns from work, I must also meet him at the door with a broad, happy housewife smile. Kiss him, help him with his suit, and follow him upstairs, where he usually makes me join him in the bathing.
When we first got married, these rituals were upsetting. Most times, I ended up with aching jaws from the fake smiles. But with time, doing these things became natural and exciting. I am truly reluctant to see him leave in the mornings, and can’t wait to see him return in the evenings. With time, he would even urge me to sleep longer in bed. Especially if he put me through a tough night. There are days when he sneaks out of the bedroom just to make sure I slept longer.
These rituals are no longer necessary, but I keep them.
Having painted a picture of suffering and endurance for Emilia, I didn’t realize that inviting her over could become a complication until it was too late.
Imagine her watching me throw myself into Huracio’s arms, aggressively kissing him as if he just returned from a long journey. How will I explain that to Emilia?
That might not be the biggest issue.
Say I decide to play casual, not hugging or kissing Huracio, wouldn’t he feel offended and disrespected?
Emilia wanted us to eat dinner at her place and return to my house later in the evening, but when I realized that things could get tricky, I started urging her to let us return earlier. I needed Emilia to be settled in before he arrives. That way, I would be able to do things the normal way. I didn’t want him to feel sidelined because my friend was around and at the same time, I didn’t want my friend to see me acting lovey-dovey with him.
When I saw him, I was tempted to turn the car around.
When we got home and it was time to get down from the car, I wanted to pretend that I was getting something from the car. That way, I would avoid having to go hug him. But then, our eyes met and he kept those eyes me until Stone parked the car.
He wasn’t blind. The car wasn’t dark either. He could see that there was nothing there. My plan was stupid.
Gritting my teeth, I got down and watched him ignore Emilia.
My heart chilled.
Is he angry because I didn’t tell him she would be coming? He was the one who told me I could do whatever I like in my house. He knew I was giving one of the detached bungalows to Emilia. Therefore, he shouldn’t be angry, right?
But his eyes looked so hard… “Huracio…” I warily hurried towards him.
Before I could say anything, he backed way, and hurried towards the house.
Shocked and confused, I turned to Emilia, wishing I could ask her what was going on.
“What’s going on?” She echoed my mind.
“I don’t know. Wait, I am coming.”
I hurried after him, but when he got to the door, he stopped and ordered me to stay out of the house.
Shocked and scared, I hurried to catch up with him. At that moment, I was ready to ask Emilia to leave if that was what was upsetting him, but just as I got to the door, it closed in my face. More like, I ran into the closing door.
“Ouch.” I grunted and stepped back.
“What’s wrong with him?” Emilia came over and asked.
“I wish I knew.” I mumbled reflectively.
I tried to open the door, but it was locked. He really locked me out.
Feeling my face go red with embarrassment, I cleared my throat and smiled at my confused best friend.
“Let’s go to your apartment. It’s over there.”
I pointed to the house on the right side of the building.
“He locked you out?” Emilia raised her brows at me.
“Yes.” I cleared my throat.
“I thought you said it’s okay for me to come stay here.” She gave me an accusatory look.
“This has nothing to do with you, I promise. I don’t know what is going on, but I am sure it has nothing to do with you. Huracio has been having a hard time at the office recently. I told you some people broke into his office. He is just stressed out and didn’t want to be disturbed. I promise.” I rattled on while guiding her towards the apartment I chose for her.
Emilia’s apartment is a four bedroom flat. After taking her around, we settled in the master bedroom.
“The only save place here is the bathroom. Even then, we have to be very careful. Huracio is crazy.” Emilia snorted.
While going round, we made sure to search for cameras. Some were in plain sight, but most were hidden. Because we couldn’t be sure and couldn’t check, Emilia said we should count every tiny hole, or spot that looks out of place as a hidden camera. Every Antique or flower pot placed in an awkward spot must also be considered as a camera stand. By doing that, we figured nowhere in the house is safe for talking.
That was still okay until we got to her bedroom and found three cameras. All were well hidden. Until we found them, I didn’t believe that Huracio would have the bedroom bugged.
We huddled up in the Jacuzzi, whispering , careful not to get recorded.
“So, how do I bypass them?”
“You don’t.” She replied in a conspiratorial tone.
“I don’t?” I was befuddled. She was here to help me bypass the cameras, wasn’t she?
“The only way to bypass cameras is to hack them. We aren’t hackers and I don’t know any hacker.” She pointed out.
“So, what do we do?” I said with a sinking spirit.
“We just need to find the house’s central switch. When you are ready to search his study, we will switch it off.”
” What are you saying? Her words felt so silly that I wanted to hit her. “How will I find the file in the dark? Plus the house is heavily guarded.” I pointed out, rolling my eyes.
Her shoulders slumped and she huffed. “Well, it’s the only way. Look at how he rigged the whole house, including the bathrooms. And you want me to come live here. Why is your husband trying to put me under surveillance?”
I could hear the anger in her voice, and felt very embarrassed. I knew the main house was heavily bugged, but it never occurred to me that he would give Emilia’s apartment the same treatment. The apartment was empty. There was no reason for it to have cameras. If Emilia had packed in without knowing, then whoever is monitoring the footages would have access to her privacy without her consent. It is simply wrong and I had no way to defend it.
“I will speak to him. He will remove them. You don’t have to worry. I replied with zero confidence.
“I want to return to my house.” She suddenly said in a stern voice.
“What? Why? What about the cameras?”
She raised her brows at me as of to say ‘Really?’
Knowing I just asked a stupid question, I scratched my head and averted my eyes, silently regretting asking for her help. She would probably never want to come here again.
“Taxi’s aren’t allowed into the estate after dark.” I pointed out.
“Great. This is why prefer driving my car.”
“Stone can drop us. I will go with you since he locked me out of the house.” I said.
“Is that okay? Won’t he get more angry?”
I huffed, suppressing the unease in my heart. “It makes no difference where I sleep since he doesn’t want to see me.”
“Okay, then.”
Emilia picked up her bag and we made our way to the car park. I called Stone and told him to drive me to Emilia’s place. To my chagrin, he called Huracio to ask for permission. And to my surprise, he got it.
I spent an uneasy night at Emilia’s place, discussing other options. But there was none. It’s either I barge into his study and brazenly retrieve the files, or I do what Emilia suggested as none of us know a hacker.