The one who used to protect me.

Her heels clicked into the room.

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

“The doctor already said it,” Ryan replied coldly. “I’m not wasting money on a body that won’t wake up.”

A body.

That’s what I was to them.

“My mom is coming back!” Ethan cried.

Ryan let out a quiet laugh.

“No, she’s not.”

Claire leaned closer to me, adjusting my hair like she used to.

But her voice changed.

Cold. Low.

“When she’s gone, we take the boy. Everything is already arranged.”

Ethan stepped back.

“You’re taking me?”

Continued on the next page