“I just wanted to see her.”
“Go sit with your Aunt Claire.”
Claire.
My older sister.
The one who braided my hair when we were kids. The one who lent me her dress for my wedding. The one who cried in front of everyone at the hospital, saying she’d give her life for me.
Her heels clicked in first. Then came her expensive perfume—the one she loved to brag about because it made her “smell like money.”
“Let him say goodbye,” she said. “The notary will be here soon.”
“The doctor’s already been clear,” Ryan replied. “I’m not going to keep paying to maintain an empty body.”
An empty body.
A wave of rage surged through me so strong I thought I might wake up screaming.
“My mom’s coming back,” Ethan said, his voice breaking.
Ryan let out a dry chuckle.
“Your mom is gone, champ.”
Claire stepped closer to me. I felt her fingers adjusting my hair.
Then her voice dropped.
“When Emily dies, we take the boy out of the country. The paperwork in Chicago is already arranged.”
Ethan stepped back.
“You’re taking me away?”
“Somewhere you won’t ask questions,” Ryan said.
“I want to stay with my mom!”
“Your mom doesn’t decide anything anymore.”
“Yes, she does! She told me if something ever happened, I should call Ms. Parker!”
Silence crashed into the room.
Ms. Parker.
My lawyer.
The only person who knew that two weeks earlier, I had changed my will.
Ryan locked the door.
“What lawyer, Ethan?”
Claire’s hand froze.
“That kid heard too much.”
And then it happened.
One finger.
Just one.
It moved.
Ethan saw it. His eyes widened, but he said nothing. He leaned close and whispered:
“Mom, don’t move. I already called for help.”
