“Parents forgot to invite me to Christmas, so I vanished for two years. When they stormed my home to steal it, they thought I’d beg. They didn’t know I’d fortified the law first.”
The coffee mug warmed my palms as I stood on the front porch, watching fat snowflakes drift down through the bare branches of the oak trees.
Barnaby slept at my feet, his graying muzzle twitching with dreams, one ear pressed against the weathered boards.
It was nine in the morning, and the silence of Oakhaven in winter was absolute, the kind of quiet that made you believe you could finally breathe. Then the engines shattered everything.
Two black SUVs and a massive U-Haul truck roared up the narrow lane, their tires spitting slush and gravel. They stopped hard at my wrought-iron gate, engines still running, exhaust clouding the frozen air.
My heart lurched into my throat.
I was already running before the first door opened. Dad—Declan—stepped out of the lead SUV, adjusting his wool coat like he was arriving at a country club. That conqueror’s smile.
That same expression he’d worn when he convinced me to co-sign his business loan six years ago, the one I was still paying off.
Then Felix jumped down from the truck’s cab, already barking orders at three men in the back. “Careful with those server racks.
Don’t scratch the casings.”
He didn’t even look at me. Didn’t acknowledge my existence as he directed them to start unloading equipment right there on the curb, blocking the entire street.
“What are you doing here?” My voice came out smaller than I intended.
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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