Chapter 1 - THREE THOUSAND OR GET OUT
The suitcase hit the marble hard enough to knock one wheel sideways.
I watched it roll across the floor of the Los Angeles house I had spent the last four years calling home.
Linda stood near the kitchen island with both arms folded.
“Pay me three grand a month,” she said, “or drag your bags out now.”
For a second, I honestly thought I had misunderstood her.
“Three thousand for what?”
“For living here.”
I stared at her.
The house belonged to Linda. That part was true. She had inherited it from her late husband years earlier.
But when Daniel and I married, she had insisted we move in.
“You two should save for your future,” she had told us.
There had never been rent.
Instead, Daniel and I paid utilities, groceries, property maintenance, landscaping, insurance increases, and nearly every repair.
More accurately, I paid most of them.
Daniel’s marketing business had struggled through two terrible years. I was the one with the steady income.
I had never complained.
Linda looked past me toward my husband.
“Tell her.”
Daniel stood several feet behind his mother in a blue shirt, staring at the floor.
“Daniel?”
He rubbed the back of his neck.
“Emily… just pay her.”
I felt something inside me go completely still.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s Mom’s house.”
“I know whose house it is.”
“Then don’t start trouble.”
That hurt more than Linda’s demand.
Four years of marriage, and when his mother shoved my belongings across the floor, Daniel’s greatest concern was that I might cause trouble.
Linda smiled.
That tiny smile made everything clear.
This wasn’t a conversation.
They had already discussed it.
They had simply expected me to obey.
I walked to my suitcase and stood it upright.
Then I reached into my work tote.
Daniel finally looked at me when he saw the cream folder.
I placed it on the marble island.
Beside it, I set down a black key fob.
“What’s that?” Linda asked.
I looked directly at her.
“Fine.”
She frowned.
“I’ll go back to my house in Malibu.”
Daniel’s face changed immediately.
Linda laughed.
Not politely.
Actually laughed.
“Your house?”
“Yes.”
“In Malibu?”
“Yes.”
“You’re lying.”
I opened the folder.
Linda snatched it before I could stop her.
Her smile disappeared three seconds later.
May you like
Because my name was on the deed.
And Daniel already knew it.
