Ethan quickly let go of my hand.

“You again?” Ryan snapped. “I told you she can’t hear you.”

“I just wanted to see her.”

“Go sit with your Aunt Claire.”

Claire.

My sister.

The one who braided my hair when we were little. The one who cried in the hospital, saying she’d give her life for me.

Her heels clicked into the room.

“Let him say goodbye,” she said. “The notary will be here soon.”

“The doctor’s already said it,” Ryan replied coldly. “I’m not paying to keep an empty body alive.”

An empty body.

Rage surged through me.

“My mom is coming back!” Ethan cried.

Ryan laughed softly. “No, she’s not.”

Claire leaned close to me, adjusting my hair.

“Even unconscious, she loves playing the victim,” she whispered.

Then her voice dropped even lower.

“When she dies, we take the boy out of the country. Everything’s already arranged.”

Ethan stepped back.

“You’re taking me?”

“Somewhere you won’t ask questions,” Ryan said.

“I want my mom!”

“She doesn’t decide anything anymore.”

“Yes, she does! She told me if anything happened, I should call Ms. Parker!”

Silence.

Ms. Parker.

My lawyer.

The only person who knew I had changed my will two weeks ago.

Ryan locked the door.

“What lawyer?”

Claire stiffened. “That kid knows too much.”

And then—

it happened.

One finger.

It moved.

Ethan saw it—but said nothing.

He leaned close and whispered,
“Mom, don’t move. I already called for help.”

“What did you say?” Ryan snapped.

“I said I love her.”

Claire reached into her purse.

“The notary is downstairs.”