Chapter 4 - The Betrayal
My father stared at the eviction notice, his face turning the color of wet ash.
"This is our home, you cannot do this to us!" he shouted at the deputies.
"The Vance Trust legally owns this property, and you have until tomorrow morning to vacate," the deputy stated firmly.
My mother collapsed onto the living room sofa, sobbing uncontrollably into her hands.
The home they had prized so much, the house they had just mercilessly kicked me out of, was slipping through their fingers.
They desperately tried to call Brittany, hoping she could use the stolen money to save them from ruin.
But Brittany was certainly not answering her phone.
She was currently standing inside Liam's apartment, aggressively stuffing her designer bags with his expensive belongings.
She had absolutely no intention of waiting around for a broke, convicted felon.
Brittany pulled open Liam's bottom desk drawer to look for any hidden emergency cash.
Instead, she found a heavy metal lockbox hidden beneath a stack of old video games.
She smashed the lock open with a heavy steel paperweight.
Inside, she found a stack of hundred-dollar bills and a sealed, yellowed envelope with my name on it.
Her greedy eyes widened as she ripped the old envelope open.
It was a certified hospital document dated almost twenty-five years ago.
Brittany read the document, a wicked, calculating smile slowly spreading across her face.
She grabbed her bags and walked out the door, leaving Liam's apartment completely trashed.
Back at the law firm, Arthur handed me a set of keys to a luxury downtown penthouse.
"Aunt Evelyn wanted you to have this property when the time was finally right," Arthur smiled warmly.
I took the keys, feeling tears of profound gratitude welling up in my eyes.
For the first time in my entire life, I felt truly safe and protected.
My phone suddenly buzzed with an incoming text message from an unknown number.
It was a picture of the hospital document Brittany had just stolen from Liam.
The message beneath it made my blood run absolutely cold.
"If you want this kept a secret, drop the charges against Liam and give me the penthouse."
I zoomed in on the photograph of the document.
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It was an original, state-certified birth certificate.
And it explicitly proved that the people who had raised me were not my biological parents.
