All Chapters of A Lifeline Cut by My Family: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

My fingers trembled as I turned on the voice recorder."Dad, I'm due next week! I came to have my car serviced today, so I'd be ready if I had to rush to the hospital." I clenched my teeth. "You cut my brake line. Were you trying to kill all three of us?"A dismissive snort came from my father, Nathan Ashley, on the other end."Women make way too big a deal out of having babies. If you go into labor, just call an Uber. Why do you have to drive yourself everywhere? You think you're so special."He paused, calculation creeping into his voice. "Besides, if something really did happen, the insurance payout would cover you and the baby. It might even pay out two million. Then Lillian wouldn't just have her dowry—she'd have enough for a down payment on a condo downtown.""Hell yeah! We cleaned them out!" someone shouted as laughter erupted from the poker table."Anyway, I'm busy. Quit wasting my time and get back on the road."The line went dead.I stared at my phone, unable to proce

Chapter 2

Jasper's decisiveness gave me the strength I needed.After we reported everything to the police, Trenton immediately transferred me to a private maternity hospital with tight security, worried that my father and Lillian might do something desperate. He checked me into a VIP suite.Leaning against the headboard, I picked up my phone.I opened my banking app and found the supplementary credit card under Lillian's name. It had a $100,000 limit. I suspended it. Then I pulled up the mortgage account for the house back home. I'd paid the entire down payment myself, but the house had been put in Lillian's name. For the past three years, the monthly mortgage payment had been automatically deducted from my paycheck.I canceled the automatic payments and unlinked the account.My father's words on the phone had reminded me just how many years I'd spent being this family's personal ATM.I was done.When I finished, I leaned back against the hospital bed.Bridget was feeding me warm chick

Chapter 3

The police treated the report as a suspected attempted murder.That afternoon, two patrol cars and a tow truck pulled up outside Ethan's repair shop. Officers taped off the area, impounded my car as evidence, and hauled it away.The scene happened to be caught on video by Gloria Ashley, a cousin from my hometown, Harrison. She happened to be in Featherington on business, and she loved gossip.Without a second thought, she forwarded the video to my father, who was in the middle of a poker game. She even exaggerated what she'd seen in a voice message."Hey, you've got to see this! The police and a tow truck are there with crime scene tape everywhere! Lyla's car is leaking fluid. I bet she crashed and died!"My father had been studying the cards in his hand. The moment he heard the message, his eyes lit up."Full house!" He slapped his cards onto the table, grinning so broadly that the wrinkles around his eyes deepened."Today's my lucky day! I'm about to be rich!"He was so excit

Chapter 4

I went into labor at the hospital a full week before my due date.The nurses rushed me into the delivery room.Outside, Trenton paced anxiously with Bridget and Jasper. Bridget stood with her hands clasped together, praying nonstop, while Jasper never took his eyes off the delivery room doors.Minute by minute, the hours crawled by.Every muffled cry of pain from inside drove another knife into Trenton's heart.Then a commotion erupted near the elevators."Move! Everybody move! I'm the victim's father! My daughter is dead! What gives you the right to keep me out?"Trenton spun around.My father and Lillian had arrived with Hayden and his parents, marching toward the delivery room with several other family members in tow. They'd gone to the morgue to identify my body, but after asking around and learning my husband's family was at the maternity ward, they'd come straight here demanding money.The moment my father stepped off the elevator, he spotted Bridget and Jasper outside t

Chapter 5

Silence settled over the hallway.My father's expression froze, the muscles in his face twitching uncontrollably.Lillian's eyes went wide. She stumbled backward until she crashed into Hayden."Y-You're not dead?" she blurted, her voice cracking with disbelief.Before she could process what was happening, she shouted in frustration, "If you're not dead, what about my house? What about my dowry? Why couldn't you just die?"The moment those words left her mouth, Hayden and his parents stared at her as though she'd turned into a monster. Greedy as they might have been, even they couldn't comprehend a sister so openly wishing for her own flesh and blood to die.I looked at Lillian's twisted face and smiled instead of getting angry.Taking the phone Trenton handed me, I opened the recording from Ethan's repair shop and pressed play."I only told Lillian to cut the brake line a little. It wasn't going to kill you. That million-dollar insurance payout would've made the perfect dowry f

Chapter 6

After security threw them out of the maternity ward, my father and Lillian didn't leave the hospital. Instead, they found seats in the outpatient lobby on the first floor, still unwilling to give up.Lillian gritted her teeth. "Dad, that viper Lyla cut off my lifeline. I'm not letting her get away with this. As soon as she's discharged, I'm going to trash her house. Let's see what she can do about it."My father gently rubbed her swollen cheek, his face full of sympathy. "That's right. We'll wreck the place. She's your older sister. How dare she treat you like this? Then I'll go to her office and make a scene so everyone knows what kind of person she is."Lost in their plans for revenge, neither of them noticed the group of police officers striding into the lobby. They didn't realize what was happening until handcuffs snapped around Lillian's wrists."Are you Lillian Ashley?" The lead detective held up an arrest warrant, his expression grim."According to the state forensic labora

Chapter 7

After spending an entire night crying and causing a scene outside the police station to no avail, my father finally snapped. He knew that as long as I refused to drop the charges, Lillian would almost certainly face a lengthy prison sentence.To force my hand, he posted a lengthy message in the family group chat. Every word painted him as a pitiful old father abandoned by his coldhearted eldest daughter.In the accompanying video, tears streamed down his face as he sobbed dramatically."Everyone, tell me if this is fair! Lyla made it big in Featherington. She lives in a luxury home and drives a nice car, yet she refuses to help her own sister when she can't even afford a dowry. Lillian was just upset, so she damaged one little brake line on her car. And what did Lyla do? She called the police, accused her own sister of attempted murder, and had her thrown in jail!"She's trying to destroy both of us! I worked so hard to raise this ungrateful daughter. I might as well just die!"He

Chapter 8

Not only did my father fail to pressure me into dropping the charges, but he also ended up becoming a public disgrace.His attorney gave him the harsh truth. The evidence against Lillian was overwhelming. She was facing more than ten years in prison. The only hope left was to come up with a substantial settlement and persuade me to sign a letter of forgiveness. If I agreed, the judge might reduce her sentence by a few years.With nowhere else to turn, my father set his sights on the house in Harrison. It was in a good neighborhood and could easily sell for over a million dollars.But when he arrived with a real estate agent and a prospective buyer, he was stunned. Two strips of white court seals had been taped across the front door. Each bore the official seal of the court."W-What is this?! Who put my house under court order?" My father shrieked and lunged forward to tear the seals down.The real estate agent hurriedly grabbed him. "Sir, those are court seals! Tearing them off is

Chapter 9

In addition to being arrested for creating a public disturbance, my father was formally charged after investigators uncovered evidence that he'd encouraged Lillian to commit the crime.On the eve of the trial, I was notified by the police to come to the detention center and provide a supplemental statement as the victim.When the interview was over, the officers arranged one final visit. Separated by the thick glass of the visitation room, I saw my father for the last time.He'd been locked up for less than two weeks, yet he looked ten years older. His once-full cheeks had hollowed out, his cheekbones jutting sharply beneath his skin. The short hair he'd carefully dyed black was now streaked with gray and hopelessly unkempt.Dressed in an orange jail uniform and wearing handcuffs, he shuffled slowly toward the glass.The moment he picked up the phone, tears spilled down his face. "Lyla... Lyla… I know I was wrong. I really do. This place is hell. Please save me. Save Lillian."He

Chapter 10

Three months later, the case finally went to trial.I sat quietly at the plaintiff's table, looking across the courtroom at Lillian and my father.Faced with overwhelming evidence, every excuse they offered fell apart. The recording about using the million-dollar insurance payout as Lillian's dowry became the prosecution's most damning piece of evidence.Realizing she was about to spend years behind bars, Lillian finally broke. Desperate for a lighter sentence, she turned on my father in open court."Your Honor, I'm innocent! My father made me do it!" Still wearing handcuffs, she pointed wildly at him."He was the one who found out my sister had insurance! He told me to cut the brake line! I didn't even know where it was. He showed me exactly what to do! I didn't understand anything—I was just doing what my dad told me!"Hearing the daughter he'd treasured all his life throw him under the bus without a second thought, my father looked as if he'd been struck by lightning. He stare

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