Chapter 3 - The Mask Comes OffI slid my thumb across the screen and hit the speaker button, setting the phone down on the wooden table between Vance and me.
"Emily!" My father's voice boomed through the speaker, devoid of any warmth or paternal concern. It was sharp, aggressive, and laced with panic. "Where the hell have you been? We've been trying to reach you for hours!"
I squeezed my eyes shut, taking a slow, painful breath. "I was in recovery, Dad. Having my abdomen sliced open. Remember?"
"Don't take that tone with me," he snapped back. "Your mother told me you threw a hysterical fit over the kids. Mrs. Miller overreacted. The kids were fine! They were on the porch for twenty minutes at most!"
"They were alone for three hours, Richard," I said, dropping the word 'Dad' entirely. "Chloe dehydrated. Liam hysterically sobbing. Mrs. Miller had to bring them into her house and give them water."
"Enough with the drama!" my father shouted. "We have a catastrophic emergency right now, Emily, and you need to fix it immediately! Arthur Vance has blocked access to the family trust. I need you to call him right now and authorize the immediate transfer of $1.5 million to my account."
I looked at Vance, who sat silently across from me, his eyes cold and watchful.
"And if I don't?" I asked quietly.
"If you don't, we lose the house!" my mother’s voice suddenly screamed from the background. She must have been listening on extension. "Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is?! Madison's engagement party is in two weeks! If the media finds out your father is bankrupt, her fiancé's family will destroy us! How can you be so selfish?!"
Selfish.
The word echoed in my chest like a physical blow. I had almost died on an operating table six hours ago. My children had been abandoned in the Texas summer heat. And my mother was calling me selfish because of a high-society engagement party.
"You forged my signature, Mom," I said, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "You committed grand larceny and fraud while I was unconscious under anesthesia."
Silence deadened the line for three agonizing seconds.
Then, my sister Madison's voice cut through the phone, sharp and dripping with venom. "Oh, please, Emily. Grandmothers left that money to the family. You're just a single mom living in a suburban tract house. You don't need millions of dollars! I'm marrying into the Sterling family! Do you know what that means for us? You are ruining my life over a petty technicality!"
"Your life?" I let out a dry, bitter laugh. "You took photos drinking champagne at a salon while my children were crying for water on a scorching porch."
"They are fine!" Madison shrieked. "Stop playing the victim! You've always been jealous of me because Mom and Dad loved me more! You're going to sign those papers tonight, or so help me God, Dad will make sure you never see a dime of support again!"
I leaned over the phone, my knuckles turning white against the wood.
"Listen to me very carefully," I said, every trace of weakness vanishing from my tone. "The locks on my house have been changed. Your names have been removed from my life. And if any of you set foot on my property tonight, I won't just call the police—I will release the security footage of Mom abandoning my children to the local news."
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"You wouldn't dare," my father growled.
"Try me," I said, and slammed the red end button.
