My letter revealed everything. The scratch card had won eight million dollars. W&D Property Holdings belonged to me, and so did the house Trevor and Amanda had been living in while planning to send me away. I had named the company after Walter and Dorothy so Trevor unknowingly remained connected to every decision. Amanda immediately began crying, insisting they had only wanted what was best for me.

But I had heard what they said that night—and I remembered Trevor remaining silent instead of defending his mother. Nathan Brooks had delivered their thirty-day notice because I was finished being their landlady. The house would be sold. I had already established education trusts for Owen and Lily that neither parent could access. Trevor quietly asked whether I hated him. “No,” I answered. “But love never meant free labor.” For once, he did not ask me for a penny. Then I told him about my cottage in Savannah—and the one condition for ever visiting me there.