For more than a year, my neighbors had been using my hot tub without permission.
At first, I didn’t even know it was happening.
Then one afternoon, a casual complaint about noise exposed something that made my stomach drop.
And when my husband and I finally checked the security footage, we discovered that our neighbors weren’t simply sneaking into our backyard for an occasional soak.
They had been treating our property like their own private resort.
And somehow, that still wasn’t the worst part.
My husband, Tom, and I had bought our dream house a few years earlier.
The house itself was beautiful, but my favorite part had always been the backyard.
It was private.
Quiet.
Surrounded by fencing and mature trees.
And in the middle of it all sat the hot tub.
After a long week of work, there was nothing better than sitting outside with Tom, listening to the water circulate while the rest of the world seemed to disappear.
