* * *
Gloria set down her wine glass.
“Margaret, you’re embarrassing yourself.
This is our home.”
“Not anymore,” I said.
Evan laughed again, but this time it was thinner.
“You can’t just—”
“Your company card was deactivated four minutes ago,” I said.
“Your keycard to this house will stop working at midnight.
And the car you’ve been driving?
It belongs to the trust.
Not you.”
The color drained from his face.
Gloria stood up so fast her chair scraped the floor.
“You can’t do this.
Emily is married to my son.
That makes this ours.”
“Emily owns this house,” I said.
“You were a guest who never left.”
Emily looked up.
Her lips moved, but no sound came out.
Then Evan pulled out his phone.
“I’m calling our lawyer.”
“Go ahead,” I said.
“But you should know—Daniel Cho already pulled the cloud records.
Every transfer you made from Emily’s accounts.
Every purchase.
Every signature you forged on the trust documents.”
The room went silent.
Evan’s phone slipped from his hand and hit the table.
“You didn’t,” he whispered.
“I didn’t have to,” I said.
“You did it to yourself.”
Then Emily spoke for the first time.
Her voice was shaking, but it was there.
“Mom,” she said.
“There’s something I haven’t told you.
Something worse than the money.”
She pulled back her sleeve.
What Margaret saw underneath changed everything.
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* * *
PART 3
* * *
Emily pulled back her sleeve.
Not just the purple mark from before.
Round, deliberate marks — small circles pressed into her skin, some faded yellow, some still red.
I counted seven before I stopped.
“When did this start?” I asked.
“After Lily was born.” Emily’s voice was barely a whisper.
“He said I wasn’t trying hard enough.
That the house wasn’t clean enough.
That I was a bad mother.”
Evan pushed his chair back.
“She’s lying.
Margaret, you can’t seriously—”
“Show me your other arm,” I said to Emily.
She did.
Same marks.
Older ones, layered under newer ones.
“Emily,” I said.
“How long?”
“Fourteen months.”
I looked at Evan.
He was still sitting, but his hands had gone white on the table.
“She b*rns herself,” he said quickly.
“She’s unstable.
I’ve been trying to get her help—”
“Stop.” My voice came out flat.
