“She will stay with us,” Susan said, flat and final. “And you are not getting her back.”
I blinked, nearly swerving into the other lane. “What?”
“She’s fine,” Susan said. “But you are unfit. You are not getting her back.”
Then she hung up.
Chapter 4: The Lie
I spun the car around in the middle of the street, tires screeching. I drove to Susan and David’s house with my jaw clenched hard enough to crack a tooth.
I banged on their door. Susan opened it a crack, the chain still on.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
“She’s here,” Susan said through the gap. “And we are keeping her.”
“I didn’t send her!” I yelled. “My parents took her! They did it behind my back!”
Susan paused. Behind her, David appeared. He looked wary, his arms crossed.
“They said you wanted her with Steven,” Susan said, her eyes narrowing. “They said you were tired of her. That she was in the way of your career.”
My legs nearly gave out. “They said… what?”
“They brought her here with her bags packed,” David said, his voice deep and rumbling. “They said you told Kora you didn’t want her anymore.”
“Oh my god.” I felt like I was going to be sick. “Open the door. Please. Look at my phone.”
I held my phone up to the crack. I showed them the call log. The missed calls to Steven. The panic.
“I just came off a double shift,” I said, tears finally spilling over. “I came home to find her room stripped. They ‘voted’ her out. Please. Ask Kora. Ask her what she was told.”
David undid the chain.
I rushed inside. Kora was sitting at the kitchen table, staring into a mug of hot chocolate. She looked smaller than I had ever seen her. Shoulders hunched, head down, like she was trying to disappear.
“Kora,” I breathed.
She looked up. Her eyes were red and swollen. She didn’t run to me. She flinched.
“Grandma said you didn’t want me,” she whispered.
My heart shattered into a million pieces. I fell to my knees beside her chair.
“Honey, no. Look at me.” I took her cold little hands. “Grandma lied. She lied because she wanted your room for Aunt Allison. I came home and you were gone, and I have been looking for you ever since. I would never, ever leave you.”
Kora’s lip trembled. “You promise?”
“I promise on my life,” I choked out. “You are the most important thing in the world to me.”
She collapsed into my arms, sobbing. I held her tight, glaring over her shoulder at Susan and David.
David looked furious. Not at me, but at the situation. Susan looked horrified.
“We thought…” David started, his voice rough. “We don’t approve of Steven. We know he’s useless. When they brought her here, saying you abandoned her… we weren’t going to let her go into the system. We were going to raise her.”
I realized then that they weren’t villains. They were the backup plan I didn’t know I had.
“I’m taking her,” I said, standing up and lifting Kora into my arms. She was too big to carry, but I carried her anyway.
“Go,” Susan said softly. “Take her somewhere safe.”
Chapter 5: The Hospital Showdown
I didn’t go back to the house. I took Kora to a hotel. We ordered room service. We watched cartoons. I held her until she fell asleep, and then I spent the entire night staring at the ceiling, plotting.
The next morning, I hired a lawyer. Mr. Brown was expensive, but he was ruthless. I handed him the deed, the mortgage statements, and the texts from my parents admitting they “voted.”
“The eviction notice will be served tomorrow,” he said.
Two days later, I was back at work. I needed the normalcy. But halfway through my shift, I heard a commotion at the nurses’ station.
“I demand to see her! She’s my daughter!”
I turned to see my parents marching down the hallway, waving papers in the air. My mom’s face was a mask of fury. My dad looked ready to fight.
Patients were looking out of their rooms. My charge nurse was reaching for the phone to call security.
I stepped forward, intercepting them before they could reach the patient area.
“You have five minutes,” I hissed, steering them into an empty consult room. “Before I have you arrested for trespassing.”
“Trespassing?” my dad shouted, slamming the eviction notice on the table. “You’re evicting us? Your own parents?”
“You stole our house!” my mom shrieked. “You used a loophole! You betrayed us!”
“I stole nothing,” I said, my voice hospital-calm. “You were $68,000 in debt. You begged me to buy it. I saved you. And how did you repay me? You traumatized my daughter. You told her I didn’t want her.”
“We did what was best!” my mom cried. “She needed a father! And Allison needed a career!”
“Allison,” I said, “needs a job. And you need a reality check.”
“We are your parents!” my dad yelled. “You owe us!”
