I knew every corner of the kitchen, every cabinet, every drawer.

But I also remembered the months Julian had spent remodeling.

He had spent weeks working late at night, the sound of drilling muffled by the floorboards.

He had claimed he was reinforcing the foundation.

Now, I realized there was a space he had never let me see.

A crawlspace behind the pantry, hidden behind the built-in shelves.

Julian kept his personal laptop locked in his study upstairs.

He used it to monitor the entire smart-home system.

He kept the security cameras, the climate control, and the inventory logs on that machine.

Lately, I had noticed him spending hours inputting data.

I had seen him ordering massive boxes of liquid meal replacements.

He told me they were for his new fitness regime.

But I had never seen him drink a single one of them.

A cold, sickening dread settled deep in my stomach.

I needed to get into that laptop.

I needed to see what he was tracking.

I sat in the living room for hours, waiting for the house to grow dark.