Chapter 11 chapter Ten

A police officer drove me home and dropped me off at the gate.The police said that they would send someone to take my bicycle home tomorrow morning, but I didn't have the energy to care about it anymore.With trembling hands, I awkwardly inserted the key into the lock and dropped it twice before opening the door.I felt strangely lethargic, and despite being wrapped in borrowed clothing, I was chilled.I had planned to enter on tiptoe and noiselessness, and then slip back to my room and sleep with my head covered; but as soon as I closed the door, I heard high-pitched voices from downstairs, and then Pipa calling: Estelle?is that youCome over here, will you?We have business with you.

So I had to go downstairs to find all my roommates there, even Leah.Everyone was sitting around the table, scrambling to speak, and I could only understand a few fragments, but a lot of it was profanity.I moved away from the group, sank into an armchair, and sighed. Estelle can say what she thinks, Davy said, she's a reasonable person. Yeah?Owen said.He looked at me like he was judging me. Reasonable?Leah snorted, hard to agree with. And what about her hard work in the garden?Dalio said, that should be considered a credit anyway, right? How is it now?I asked. What the hell are you wearing?Pipa asked me, the latest uniform of the bicycle courier?

Not that I just said it. Can we get back to business?Myers said. We had to find a mediator, David said, and it was difficult for us to remain neutral.No one wants to turn against each other in the end. It's too late.Dalio said. I am a lawyer, Pipa said, and I can remain neutral and objective. Leah snorted again, louder this time. Tell her to shut up.Mike said in a low, self-made voice.A vein popped out of his temple. Leah, Miles said, please do me a favor.You are doing a disservice. To my surprise, he didn't flinch from her smoldering eyes. I'm just speaking the truth that you want to say but dare not say.You make me play blackface, and then everyone can blame Leah, the wicked Witch of the North.

It should be the West.Dalio said. Come on folks, what the hell is going on here?I ask again. A bird thing.Dalio said. Allow me to explain a little bit, please?Pipa leaned towards me, and it was I who called this party.I think it would be better to have an open and honest discussion about the terms of the eviction. I didn't issue any eviction order.Myers said.From the tone of his voice, I knew he had said this sentence many times. We also have tenant rights, Dalio said, Pipa, you tell me, right? Miles was already generous.Leah said. How generous?Owen asked, so generous that we should get out of the way?Generous enough to only give us a few weeks to find another place to live?

I'm a legal tenant, said Dalio, right, Pipa? Well, Pipa hesitated. Can I say something?Miles interjected. I'm almost starting to feel sorry for him. If you're going to make more concessions, don't talk about it, Leah said, it's too much now. Davy got up from his chair, came over and squatted at my feet.Estelle, are you okay?He mumbled that you don't look well. I smiled at him gratefully, but hesitated to speak.I can't bear to talk about it.At least not now.I don't want the rabble to turn the spotlight on me and bombard me with a barrage of questions. Based on skyrocketing housing prices and tenant rights

I'll talk to you later.I gesture with my mouth. We have to talk about whether the payments are fair and reasonable.Pipa said so.She spoke suddenly as a different person, becoming a bit bureaucratic and pedantic. You want him to pay you, Leah said, and I should have known there would be money in the end. Oh, I'm so sorry, Pipa said, it's really vulgar to mention money. I also want fairness.Myers said.He half-turned and shot me a look of impatience and pleading that, in another situation, I might have offered him a helping hand.Today, however, I just sit weakly in an armchair and think of Ingrid.De.Soto's face was cut indiscriminately, and a sense of nausea emerged.

We have to calculate the amount, Pipa said, according to how long each person has lived here. Do you really have the face to say such a thing?Leah said, you are the one who has lived here the longest. So what about my contribution to this family?Dalio interjected. Davy next to me gasped and mentioned something about the vapor barrier. Then you haven't paid rent since you moved in, so what?Leah snapped, besides, the whole house is going to be renovated. Miles, are you sure you want to live with this lady?Dalio asked. I didn't live here very long.David said. Dude, I'm just like you.Owen said.

No one will lose, Myers said, how about fifteen thousand pounds? Are you crazy?Leah exclaimed, Miles, listen to me, you don't have to give anything.These people have no basis and no position, and they know it very well.Don't be intimidated by them. They're my friends, Miles said, and you don't want to meddle in this.Or do you not want me to make friends?Is it this way? Stop bullshitting. Fifteen thousand pounds each?Pipa asked. Pipa, you know I can't afford this huge Because it would be an insult to ask us to divide the fifty thousand equally.We've lived here so long and helped you pay your mortgage, now we have to find somewhere else to stay.We had to pay a deposit, buy furniture, and start over.At the same time, your house price has increased tenfold.

That twenty thousand pounds.installment. Everyone paid for the boiler, Dalio said, it was super expensive. Yes, Pipa said, although one of us would benefit more, it goes without saying that I meant Mike and Dalio. You don't like my paintings, Dalio said sullenly, but what about Estelle's vegetable garden?She spent days and weeks betting on it. Nobody made her do it, Leah said, we'll dig up the vegetable garden anyway. In the end, I couldn't help but fire.What a bitch you are.I said. Leah turned her head and stared at me with wide almond eyes.Her beautiful eyes are cruel and unfeeling.That's the bitch who took your man too.

Wow.David said.He looked terrified. Never heard of these two words?Leah said cheerfully: No one in the north? smelly bitch.Mike yelled.Everyone stared at him dumbfounded.Who is he talking to?Pipa giggled beside her, and then quickly covered her mouth. Stop arguing, Miles pleads, this is not the way to negotiate. Why not?I'm having a good time.Leah said. I don't care about money, I said, if you want, I will give you my share.This whole thing is just so ugly. Silence fell, everyone's expressions froze for a while, and then anger and self-righteousness turned into shame.Miles buried his head in his hands, then looked up, looking me straight in the eye.I hope none of this happens, he said, I wish I could turn back time.

Yes, Dalio said eagerly, yes, man.Just get that word out of your mouth. Let's go to the bar, Davy said, and get out of this place.Talk to me later.No need to rush into a decision, right?What do you think? Nothing to talk about.Leah said, but no one took her words seriously. Great idea, said Dalio, the most reasonable thing I've heard in hours.The first round of wine I treated, but I just remembered now, I have no money with me.I don't know where the money went.Come on, Miles, don't look so sad, no one is dead. Estelle, I don't want to dig up your vegetable garden.Miles said to me. The vegetable garden I can build again. Pipa, let's put it this way, Miles turned to face her, I'll get someone to estimate the value of the house, and then draw up a proposal.Maybe I'll get outside advice so people can try to be as neutral as possible.I also want everything to be fair, and I hope you understand that I don't mean to rip you off. Aren't they trying to rip you off?Leah muttered in a low voice, this is what you didn't consider. Miles turned a deaf ear.Maybe we don't need to mobilize all the people to discuss every time, and make the atmosphere tense.Pipa, why don't we discuss it first, and then tell everyone what do you think? Okay, Pipa said, Estelle, why are you wearing these clothes?Where did you get this outfit from, the recycling bin? This is what the police wore for me.I said reluctantly. It's a very strange feeling.It was as if I instantly became a magnet, attracting everything in the room.Everyone turned to me and waited for me to continue. It was an accident.I said, pausing to think of the right words.Not an accident, I am correcting this sentence, it is a death case.Someone died.I saw her with my own eyes.She was breathless in front of me. again?David said in a breathy voice. Not an accident, what does that mean? That person was murdered, I said, and I saw her through the letterbox and broke through the window and she fell to the floor and I touched her.I couldn't help but shudder.I touched her and turned her over, and her face was covered in It doesn't matter, Davy said, it doesn't matter.You don't have to say this. There were knife wounds and I finished my sentence, I've never seen a body this close. But Miles had only just spoken. oh fuck.Dalio said in a breathy voice. Poor little guy.Pipa said. I don't want to go on, I said, I just want to go to bed. It's still daylight, Dalio said, and everybody's going to the bar. Davy gave him a stern look. Who is the deceased?Owen asked.Curiosity was written all over his face.do you know her What?I shake my head.No, I don't know her.I've met her a few times before, she's just a client. Whoa, Dalio said, oops.First it was Paige, and now it's this woman again.What's the matter with you? Shut up, Dalio, said Pipa, and speak more tactfully. That's right.He just repeated what the police had been saying for half a day. It must be scary.David said. yes. A moment's silence followed.I can see that everyone is exhausted, trying to find appropriate questions without being too bloody and cruel. You go to the bar, I said, I'm not in the mood for fun. I stay with you.Pipa said. no.You go too.I want to be alone for a while.