Ware

mock me, illuminating a world I no longer belonged to. Every happy couple walking hand-in-hand, every family laughing in

nd just... break. I walked into the lobby of a modest chain hotel, the kind I never

rk said, sliding the card back

my bones. "That' s not

"Decl

credit card.

decli

e result was the same. A message fl

t evict people from his life; he salted the earth behind them. He had left me with nothi

over me. I stumbled back out into the cold nig

. Wa

sabell' s lawyers, the one who had tried to take my box o

you want

nal indifference. "Due to your... uncooperative departure and the theft of proprietary

records "theft." I think I made

from his briefcase. "I believe you need a reminder of th

lwind of paperwork when Jordan had first told me about his "debt." I had

h in fine print, a section labeled "Adden

Ware) acknowledges that the child, Leo, is the biological offspring of Jordan Fernandez and a designated third party via surro

as a mother, reduced to

red in the form of a beneficiary interest in a trust fund, contingent upon the successful and

dy been shattered, was no

My legs gave out, and I collapsed onto the cold, gritty pave

t not limited to the development of a prohibitive scarcity mindset or an inability to assimilate i

e paper with

eemed unsatisfactory. Therefore, you forfeit the trust. You were never his mother. You were neve

the words sink in,

are no

es clicking on the pavement, leaving me kne

my own heart. The betrayal was so complete, so absolute, it was almost elegant in its cruelty. They hadn' t just taken my

spair was a physical weight, a suffocating tide pulling me under. I thought, this is it. This is ho

semblance of shelter. My mind was a maelstrom of pain and humiliation. They had won. They had every a

sume me completely when a single, u

ng at me, his eyes bright with a passion I hadn't thought about in years. He was explainin

creen. "It' s about creating a record that can' t be change

electric, shot thr

ne he' d left me.

is software. Hi