I Invited My Girlfriend to Move In – What Happened Next Surprised Me

My breath caught in my throat. My heart started to pound. Don’t look, don’t look, a voice whispered. You’ll regret it. But another, louder voice screamed: You HAVE to know. My hand trembled as I picked it up. It was on a messaging app. Not texts, not social media. Something encrypted, something private.

The messages weren’t with a person. They were with a group. A group named “The Watchers.” My stomach dropped. I scrolled, my eyes wide, barely comprehending the fragments I saw. Dates. Locations. My routines. My friends’ names. My family’s schedule. It was a log. A surveillance log. My blood ran cold. This wasn’t cheating. This was something else entirely. Something terrifying.

Then I saw it. A single message, sent just an hour ago: “He’s home early. Accessing the office now. The ledger is where he said. I found it.”

The office. The locked, dusty office in my house that belonged to my late father. The office I hadn’t touched since he passed away unexpectedly a decade ago. The office my family had always told me not to enter, “out of respect,” “full of old papers.” I had never questioned it. Never had a reason to.

My head swam. What ledger? What was happening? I stumbled toward the office door. It was usually locked, but I tried the handle. It turned. The door swung open slowly, revealing the shadowy room. Nothing seemed out of place. But then, my eyes landed on the old mahogany desk. A single drawer, usually stiff and hard to open, was ever so slightly ajar.

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