w throat before I hung up. He hadn't even waited for me to respond.

onger one. When Arthur needed money, I sold everything. When he needed a kidney, my mother gave him hers. When he needed a new career pat

ou saved me, Alexandra," he' d whispered, his eyes filled with what I thought was genuine gratitude. "You and your mother. I owe yo

less. Her kidney. Her life savings. All for him. All for this. For him to abandon her, to le

ng. We need him here. It's critical." But he wasn't there. He was comforting Blaire. My mother had suffered for hours, her body failing, her calls f

hallway about her death, he' d called the orderlies. "She's hysterica

ad me locked away, silenced, while he disposed of her memory like trash. And now, here I

wn my face, hot and stinging. I choked on a sob. A loud bang came from the adjacent room.

trying to muffle the sounds of my own broken he

charine and smug, cut through the silence. "Sleeping in a dump like th

lways wore, filled the small room. It clung to her, a suffocating cloud

e grabbed my chin, her nails digging into my skin. Her eyes, usually wide and innocent for her cameras, were hard and malicious. "What's wrong, Ale

The gentle curve beneath her silk blo

s. All his. And soon, he'll be all mine. You're ju