CHAPTER 3: THE PRICE OF GREED

The next morning, my mother knocked on my bedroom door.

For the first time in years...

She knocked.

"Hannah..."

Her voice trembled.

"May we talk?"

I opened the door.

She looked older.

Smaller.

Ashamed.

"I'm sorry."

The words came slowly.

"I thought..."

She couldn't finish.

"I believed Chloe needed me more."

I looked at her for a long time.

"You didn't choose Chloe."

She frowned.

"You chose money."

Her eyes filled with tears.

She didn't deny it.

Downstairs, Chloe was stuffing designer handbags into expensive suitcases.

"You can't throw me out!" she shouted.

"This is my home!"

I calmly held up the property deed.

"No."

"It's mine."

She laughed bitterly.

"You wouldn't dare."

I handed her another envelope.

She opened it.

An invoice.

Every luxury purchase she'd secretly charged to Dad's business accounts.

Cars.

Jewelry.

Vacations.

More than four hundred thousand dollars.

Attached was a notice from the company's accountant.

Unless repayment arrangements were made...

Criminal charges would follow.

Her face drained of color.

"You... you planned this?"

"No."

"Dad did."

Robert had uncovered every transaction.

Every lie.

Every stolen dollar.

Within two weeks, Chloe sold the SUV.

The jewelry disappeared.

So did most of her friends.

The people who loved her money...

Never loved her.

Meanwhile, my mother quietly packed away Dad's belongings with me.

For the first time in years...

We talked.

Really talked.

Not about inheritance.

Not about money.

About him.

About family.

About every mistake that had brought us here.

Healing came slowly.

But it came.