Claire backed away.
“Mom said Mara would forgive us!”
My mother immediately turned against her.
“Do not drag me into this.”
Daniel tapped the printed group chat.
“Mrs. Hale, you instructed Claire to withhold childcare until Mara became desperate. You also signed the false witness statement sent to the lender.”
My father collapsed onto the sofa.
Mother looked at me.
“We were teaching you not to take us for granted.”
“No. You were starving a wounded daughter of support so you could steal her company.”
Claire began to cry.
“I was going to repay everything.”
“With what? The boutique I financed? The salary I invented? The shares you do not own?”
The investigators asked Claire and my mother to accompany them for formal interviews.
My mother reached toward me, but I rolled the wheelchair backward.
“Please,” she whispered. “We are your family.”
“So are Noah and Lily. You remembered blood only when the cards stopped working.”
