The pecan pie was warm in my hands when Celeste stood and pointed one crimson nail at my face.
Chapter 1
The pecan pie was warm in my hands when Celeste stood and pointed one crimson nail at my face.
“Pay twelve hundred dollars a month,” she said, “or get out.”
The room went silent. The turkey I had bought sat half-eaten beneath blinking Christmas lights. Even Celeste’s perfume had been my gift.
I looked at my son, Garrett.
Three years earlier, after my husband Philip died, I had signed our paid-off house over to him. Garrett promised I would always have a home. Instead, I lived in a converted garage while paying for groceries, tuition, insurance, phones, and his emergency credit card.
“Garrett?” I whispered.
He leaned back in the oak chair his father had built and smiled.
“Let’s see how you survive now, Mom.”
Something inside me turned cold.
I placed the pie down, walked to the garage, packed two suitcases, and opened a sealed envelope hidden beneath my clothes.
Inside were bank statements, property records, and the truth my family had never discovered.
I was worth nearly
six hundred thousand dollars.
Across town, a beautiful house waited for me—fully paid for and titled in my name alone.
Before leaving, I made one decision.
By morning, every dollar would stop.
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