Claire had always been the family princess.
Outside my room, Lily started crying. I could not lift her. I could barely turn without assistance, and that helplessness hurt more than the broken bones.
But underneath the pain was something stronger—the certainty that I would never again buy love from these people.
A nurse named Elena found me silently crying. She caught my phone before it slipped from my hand.
“Who can I call?” she asked.
Through the glass wall, I looked at my babies sleeping in borrowed cribs.
Something inside me went completely still.
“Daniel Cho,” I said. “My attorney.”
Daniel answered immediately.
“I want every family payment stopped tonight,” I told him. “Cards, insurance, club fees, allowances, everything. No exceptions.”
He paused briefly. “Including the residence?”
“Yes.”
My parents called it their house, but the deed belonged to my holding company. They had never qualified for a mortgage. I had purchased it, paid the taxes, and allowed them to live there rent-free under a renewable occupancy agreement.
