"Then increase the dose!" Christine hissed through clenched teeth. "Hit her from both sides. I refuse to believe we can't finish her off. She has to die—it's the only way the house transfers to Rhys's name without raising suspicion. That's the only thing that'll keep Vivian quiet."
"I know. I'll handle it..."
I backed into the storage room, locked the door, and pressed my spine against it.
My whole body was shaking.
All these years, I'd believed Christine genuinely cared about me.
After Mom passed, she was the one who braided my hair, attended parent-teacher conferences, brewed brown sugar tea when my cramps were bad.
I even remembered my senior year—I'd had a fever, and she sat by my hospital bed the entire night.
Was all of it a lie?
And Dad. The man who, in every memory I had, loved my mother more than anything—he was the one who helped kill her?
No wonder I'd been dizzy and nauseous lately. I'd chalked it up to exhaustion.
They'd been poisoning me.
Don't panic.
If I stormed out there now to confront them, I had no proof. I'd only tip them off.
I had to stay calm. For Mom.
The next morning, I acted as though nothing had happened and got up at my usual time.
Dad and Christine had taken Leo to the park. Rhys was at work. That left just me and my sister-in-law.
She'd actually made breakfast.
"Lola, how'd you sleep last night?"
I sat down at the table but didn't touch the food.
"Vivian, if you have something to say, just say it."
Her smile stiffened. She lowered herself into the chair across from me.
"Lola, I was up all night thinking about this. I know I was harsh yesterday, but you have to see things from my side."
"Leo's about to start school. I'm pregnant again. The expenses are real, and your brother's salary only goes so far..."
She paused, then pressed on.
"You're Leo's aunt, after all. If we actually kicked you out, people would talk—say we couldn't tolerate family under our own roof. So here's what I'm thinking: you stay, but you contribute ten thousand a month toward household expenses."
"Honestly, a place like this in this neighborhood? You'd be looking at thirty thousand a month on the rental market, easy. Ten thousand is the family discount." She straightened in her seat. "But going forward, you'll need to pull your weight around the house—groceries, cooking, cleaning, picking up and dropping off Leo. All of it."