a peeling, two-story townhouse in Queens. Th

crumpled hundred-dollar bill through t

ots hit the rotting wooden steps of the porch. Ever

ss doorknob, Jimmie's shrill laughte

de. "She couldn't even keep a dying sixty-yea

r right leg, the heavy sole of her co

as

d. The heavy door slammed violently against

r inside di

gar. The loud bang made him jump. The burning ash dropped

greasy spatula. "Are you crazy? !" she s

over the threshold, her face completely blank. She wal

ugh the air. She stopped right in fr

her chest. Her face was caked in cheap foundation. "What

She tilted her chin up, her pierc

oth, but it cut like a razor. "He faked it to hide in the ICU b

He shot up from the couch. "

her pocket and pulled up a screenshot of the

face-up onto the gla

it," Jade

fer of eight hundred and eighty thousand dollars from a blind Cayman trust-her tru

is my final payment to be legally and permanently removed from your custody. Consid

abbed the phone, staring at th

hone and Jaden's cold stare. "Yo

en said flatly. "But this is all y

d pulled out a thick stack of papers. Her lawyers

face. The heavy pages slapped his c

. "Take the money, and get