Chapter 2

The next morning the security code to my marital home no longer worked. The building manager showed me documents listing Daniel and Serena as the owners.

My mother had helped buy that house before I married him. Every piece of furniture had been chosen with her. Somehow Daniel had transferred control of it without my knowledge.

He told me I could regain access if I appeared at Serena's public event and confessed that I'd harassed and threatened her.

I arrived ten minutes before the cameras went live, not to apologize but to retrieve the only things I had left of Mom.

Daniel handed me a prepared statement. It portrayed me as unstable and Serena as an innocent victim. He claimed freezing our accounts had been necessary to protect family assets.

"You froze the money Mom needed for treatment," I said. "Take that line out."

"We'll put your mother in the best rehabilitation hospital after you apologize."

"I sent you the emergency notice the night she died."

He sighed. "Nora, how long are you going to keep this act up?"

Serena approached, smiling for the cameras. Then she leaned close enough to whisper.

"It's not *my* mother's last home you're about to lose. Read the statement."

I understood then that this was not about an apology. They wanted my public surrender so they could take her house, too.

I refused.