Chapter 4

When I rushed over to my mom's place, I found her clinging desperately to a man's leg and crying out, "These are Elena's things! You can't throw them away!"

"Get off me!"

The man jerked his foot and kicked her straight into the corner.

"Mom!"

My eyes burning with rage, I rushed forward and found Mom clutching her stomach in agony, moaning without end.

And sitting in the middle of the living room, of all people, was Sasha.

She was the one who'd called in the thugs who were clearing out the house.

"Mrs. Cathcart, my little brother is starting high school next semester, and he doesn't want to board at school. So Mr. Cathcart said he'd rent your mom's house to us for now."

She set a bank card down on the table.

"Here's three years' rent. I really did want to talk things over nicely with your mom, but she flat-out refused. So I had no choice but to call some people in."

She covered her mouth and laughed, her face full of smug satisfaction.

It wasn't until half an hour after I'd gotten Mom into the emergency room that Andrew finally showed up.

"How's your mom doing?"

I didn't answer.

Andrew's expression shifted slightly, and he sat down next to me.

"Sasha's young. She's got a bit of a temper. But she means well.

"And I'm not trying to kick your mom out. I've already picked out a new place for her.

"Sasha's brother needs to go to school, and your mom's house is in the best location. Just let Sasha have it."

I looked at the floor plan in his hand.

He had bought Sasha a 5 million dollar house.

He'd marked off the smallest room in it and said it was for my mom to "stay in temporarily."

Over those three years, I had brought it up with him more than once: I wanted to do a few simple renovations on Mom's run-down old house.

He'd shot the idea down every time.

Yet when my cousin stayed with us for three days while she was studying for her grad school entrance exams, he calculated every cent of the water and electricity she used and deducted it from my allowance that month.

He begrudged a 50,000-dollar renovation, and he wouldn't let a 50-dollar utility bill slide.

But a 5 million dollar house for Sasha? He handed it over without batting an eye.

"No way."

I watched the light over the operating room go dark, and everything inside me went deathly still.

"Andrew, whether it's the house or my dad's paintings... I'm not backing down."

Andrew's breathing grew heavy.

At that very moment, Mom was wheeled out.

"You'll regret this."

He watched my back as I hurried toward her, then suddenly turned to the doctor beside him and said coldly, "You'd better look into this woman's payment records. There's a good chance her money is stolen."

I spun around in disbelief.

"There's no way she has more than 1,000 dollars of her own to spend. Anything over that has to be stolen."

Another bank card was tossed at my feet.

"Drop any ideas about suing, and I'll tell you the PIN. There's more than enough in there to move your mom into the best care facility there is. Otherwise..."

He scoffed and brushed past me.

The nurse beside us looked at me, hesitating as if she wanted to say something.

"There is nothing wrong with where my money came from."

Before they could ask, I pulled up my phone.

An hour earlier, Yolanda Cohen had transferred a sum of money into my account.

I had originally planned to leave things at that. But now, I didn't want to let either of them off the hook.

"Yolanda, call a board meeting in my name."

My face was expressionless. "You'll chair it on my behalf. I want to see results tonight."

…

Six hours later, Andrew picked up his phone for who knew how many times, yet there was still no message from me.

He was sitting at a product launch event, watching Sasha present Arthur Banks's paintings and speak about them at length.

"For this season's new collection, I drew my inspiration from the oil paintings I've created over the years..."

The people around him murmured to one another, all praising how talented Sasha was.

Only Andrew felt a wave of unease he couldn't explain.

"Mr. Cathcart, we have a problem! You need to get back to the office right away!"

His secretary came running in, voice frantic. "Headquarters suddenly called a board meeting. They're saying they're going to remove you as general manager!"

"What did you say?"

Andrew shot to his feet.

At the same moment, the giant screen at the launch went black.

"Stealing a dead man's work, Sasha? Aren't you afraid it'll cost you years off your life?"