This was the opportunity I had been working toward for seven years.
“I won’t let you down,” I said.
David nodded once.
“I know. That’s why you’re going.”
That night, I booked my flights from Denver to Singapore through Tokyo, leaving March first and returning March thirteenth. The final contract signing was scheduled for March fifteenth at our Denver headquarters, with Meridian’s CFO flying in to formalize the deal.
I emailed my family a brief update. I would be traveling for work and would be hard to reach except for emergencies.
My mother replied with one sentence.
So your house will be empty for twelve days.
I did not think twice about it.
I should have.
While I was focused on the biggest win of my career, my family was planning something else entirely, and they had twelve days to do it.
Before I left, I gave a spare key to my neighbor Rachel Holloway. Rachel was a thirty-six-year-old project manager at a tech startup and one of my closest friends since I moved to Aurora. She had my alarm codes, my emergency contacts, and instructions to water my one surviving houseplant if she remembered.
“Text me when you land,” she said when I dropped off the key. “And do not let those finance people push you around.”
“I won’t.”
What I did not mention was that my parents also had a spare key. I had given it to them in 2022 when they visited for the only time since I bought the house. My mother had asked for it “in case of emergencies.”
A burst pipe.
A power outage.
Something that needed immediate attention.
It seemed reasonable.
They were my parents.
At the airport, I texted my mother from the gate.
Flying out now. Back on the thirteenth. Talk soon.
Her reply came fifteen minutes later.
Safe travels, sweetheart. Twelve days is a long time. Make sure someone checks on your house.
I smiled at the message, assuming it was ordinary parental concern.
At thirty thousand feet somewhere over the Pacific, I closed my eyes and thought about the pitch I would deliver in Singapore.
I had no idea what was happening in my living room back home.
Not yet.
Two days later, after a long day of preparation meetings, I was in my hotel room reviewing slides when the Ring notification came through.
Motion detected.
