After They Left Me to Die, I Hoarded, They Begged

Chapter 2

After settling Chloe in, I headed straight out the door.

Ethan called after me from behind. "Where are you going? Chloe just got here today, and you're not cooking?"

"We do not have enough groceries. I am going to Costco for a big haul. I want to throw Chloe a proper welcome dinner."

Hearing that I was going to buy good food, Cody yelled from the living room. "I want steak! And strawberries! Chloe loves dark chocolate, so get a bunch of that!"

I shut the door, leaned against the wall outside, pulled a bottle of chilled water from my bag, twisted the cap off, and tilted my head back for a long, greedy gulp.

The cold liquid slid down my throat and the burning sensation slowly faded. I let out a long, satisfied sigh, then made a beeline for the nearest rental place and picked up a Ford panel van.

The heatwave from my past life had not crept in gradually. The next morning, the moment the sun came up, the temperature would spike past a hundred and thirty degrees within an hour, and hit a hundred and forty or more by the afternoon.

The power grid would go down completely by the second day from the sheer overload.

The water pipes would burst and run dry on the third.

I drove to the big-box warehouse store.

I did not grab any fresh produce or perishable meats. Instead, I cleared out fifty cases of bottled water, thirty cases of Gatorade, two hundred packs of compressed biscuits, and a mountain of self-heating meal kits.

After that, I hit the home improvement center.

In my past life, while I was slowly roasting to death in the sunroom, I had overheard them talking. The wine cellar downstairs, barely a hundred square feet, was apparently the best-insulated room in the entire house.

I bought two high-power portable AC units, four solar generators, two rolls of heavy-duty reflective insulation film, and the crown jewel: a high-security vault-style steel door with industrial-grade thermal insulation.

On top of that, I picked up a full set of high-definition security cameras and a matching monitor.

In my past life, I had died in that sunroom, only catching fragments of what happened in the living room through the glass at an angle.

This time around, I wanted to see every single frame.

To keep them from catching on too early, I paid double the labor fee and had the workers follow me home to install everything right away.

At three in the afternoon, I walked in with two workers carrying armloads of gear.

Ethan was lounging on the couch with Chloe, watching TV. When he saw me hauling in all that equipment, his face soured.

"Elena, what the hell are you buying all this junk for?"

I pointed at the storage room in the basement. "It has been scorching out lately. My expensive wine collection and some personal valuables cannot handle the heat or humidity. I am turning the storage room into a climate-controlled unit."

Chloe sauntered over, eyeing the insulation film the workers were carrying, and cooed, "Elena must be loaded. Turning a whole room into a wine cellar just for a few bottles. Ethan is out there busting his hump sending out resumes every day, and you're just throwing money around."

Ethan's face went dark. "Elena, you're getting way too spendy. Chloe needs a car to get to her job interviews. Can you show a little restraint?"

I pulled out my phone and Venmoed Ethan two hundred bucks on the spot.

"The workers are going to be here late tonight to finish the job, so I won't have time to cook. Take Chloe and Cody out for some fast food."

Cody saw the two hundred dollars and kicked the doorframe. "Evil woman! You promised steak and strawberries! You lied!"

"Take it or leave it."

I tossed the cold line over my shoulder and locked the basement door behind me with the workers inside.