I walked back to my apartment, slammed the door behind me, and paced around the living room, trying to think. Connie was playing with her dolls on the floor and Damien was still out with his friends. I didn’t want to get my kids involved in this mess, but I wasn’t about to let Emery get away with it either.
‘Okay Prudence, you have to be smarter than that,’ I muttered to myself. I looked out the window at Emery’s house and an idea started to form in my head. It was risky, but at that moment I didn’t care anymore. If she wanted to play dirty, I could get dirty too.
Twenty minutes later I was at the local junkyard, pulling on a pair of old gloves I had stored in the car. I wasn’t proud of what I was about to do, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
I loaded as many bags of rubbish into the boot as I could fit, and the stench almost made me vomit. But I gritted my teeth and continued on my way.
On the way, I kept replaying our conversation in my head, her dismissive tone, her refusal to acknowledge what she’d promised. The more I thought about it, the more justified I felt.
She didn’t even have the decency to respect the labour I’d put into cleaning her filthy house. Well, she was about to see how dirty things could be.
It was quiet. No one was around to see me open the boot and start lugging bags of rubbish to her front door. My heart was pounding in my chest, adrenaline surging through me as I worked fast.
And then it hit me: Emery had forgotten to take the house key from me. She’d been in such a hurry to leave, she hadn’t even thought of it.
I hesitated for a moment. But then I remembered the look on her face when she’d told me there was no contract, how she’d brushed me off like I was nothing. I wasn’t going to let her get away with it.
I unlocked the door and stepped inside. The house was still spotless, just as I’d left it, but things were about to change. One by one I ripped open the rubbish bags, dumping their contents on the floor, the counters and even the bed. Rotten food, old newspapers, dirty nappies all mixed together in a disgusting pile.
‘This is what you get, Emery,’ I muttered to myself as I emptied the last bag. ‘You wanted to play games, well, play games.’
I closed the door behind me, remembering to lock it, and slipped the key under her mat. As I walked back to the car, I felt a strange rush of satisfaction and guilt. But I brushed it away. Emery had brought this on herself.
In the evening, as I was putting Connie to bed, I heard a furious pounding on my front door. I realised who it was before I even opened the door.
‘Prudence! What the hell have you done to my house!’ screamed Emery, her face red with anger.
I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorjamb, feigning calm. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Emery. How could I have gotten into your house? It’s not like we had any kind of agreement, remember? So I never had a key to your house.’
She stared at me, speechless for a moment, and then her face contorted with rage. ‘You… you’re lying! I’m calling the police! You’re going to pay for this!’
I shrugged, not breaking eye contact. ‘Go ahead, make the call. But how are you going to explain how I got in? You can’t, because according to you, I never had a key.’
Emery opened her mouth to object, but no words came out. She looked like she was about to explode, but all she could do was turn on her heel and walk away, muttering something to herself.
I watched her go, and my heart was still pounding, but this time it wasn’t just from anger. It felt like justice, a restored balance.
I didn’t know if she would call the police, but I didn’t care. Emery had learnt a valuable lesson that day: don’t mess with Prudence.
As I closed the door, I let out a long sigh, feeling a weight lifted off my shoulders. I knew I’d crossed a line, but in that moment, it felt like the only way to make things right.
Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself, even if it means getting your hands dirty. And what about Emery? Well, I had a feeling she wouldn’t be asking me for any more favours anytime soon.