The existing smart locks were replaced with a system that required multi-factor authentication—biometrics paired with an encrypted device handshake that rotated keys every few seconds. I installed vein authentication on the front door: the kind of technology most people only saw in high-security labs. Windows were upgraded to the highest level of anti-intrusion, laminated and reinforced. AI-powered motion-detection cameras monitored the property 24/7, learning patterns, flagging anomalies, sending alerts only when something truly deviated from my normal.
People sometimes think security is about fear.
For me, it was about sovereignty.
A week later, my attorney helped me obtain a temporary restraining order barring my parents and Kristen from coming within five hundred yards of me or my property. The paper itself wasn’t magical, but it was a boundary with teeth. If they crossed it, the consequences were immediate and unmistakable.
They would never again step into my field of vision as if they belonged there.
The legal process moved with the grinding pace of bureaucracy, but it moved.