Chapter 2
"Emily, why haven't you gone to the insurance company yet? I heard a lot of families have already gotten their payouts," Linda said.
"I don't want to go," I said, looking at her seriously. "I just feel like Ryan is still out there."
Linda's face froze for a second, her eyes flickering with guilt before she took my hand. She said, "I know it's hard for you to accept that Ryan's gone, but life goes on, you know? And.
"Jason just got his SAT scores, and honestly, they're not looking good. I'm thinking about sending him overseas. What do you think?"
"Study abroad?" I frowned and said, "He's always struggled with foreign language, barely scraping by. Are you sure he'll be able to keep up and actually graduate over there?"
Linda looked stunned. She clearly didn't expect me to ever push back, since I always went along with whatever she wanted.
"Well, there are language programs overseas. He could take a year of foundation courses first," she explained.
"If you think that's best, then go for it," I replied.
"Uh, well," she said, hesitating.
"Anything else?" I asked, pretending not to catch her drift.
She said, "Honestly, the insurance money is quite a bit. I figured we could use some of it to pay for Jason's schooling."
"Why?" I asked, my face puzzled.
She was caught off guard and said, "What do you mean by that?"
"Why is my husband's insurance money being used to pay for Jason's education?" I asked, still confused.
"Come on, Emily, what are you talking about? We're family," she said.
Family? Or just a leech sucking me dry?
I met her gaze, my tone steady and cold. I said, "You know perfectly well that the moment Ryan was gone, we stopped being family. Everything he left behind belongs to me now. Not even you have a claim to it."
Her face drained of all color at my merciless words.
"Emily, when did you become like this? Are you still the Emily I know?" she asked.
I shrugged, letting out a light laugh. I replied, "You were the one who told me to move on."
My cold, distant attitude finally pushed her over the edge. She said, "I'm Ryan's mother. Don't think you can just take all his inheritance for yourself."
"Inheritance?" I burst out laughing. I said, "Go ahead, sue me if you want. I'm not backing down."
"You, fine. Just you wait," she shouted.
With nothing to gain, she stormed out, still fuming and muttering threats as she left.
Not long after, I got word from the detective; Linda just couldn't help herself and called Ryan.
On the phone, she was raging, calling me heartless and ungrateful. Ryan didn't buy it at first, but once he heard I was ready to drag her to court, he totally went off on me.
He threw every insult in the dictionary at me. Seriously, he could have filled a whole essay with those curses.
It was like I'd cut off their cash flow, and suddenly, everything was my fault.
But they seemed to forget that what they were doing was actually illegal.
A few days later, I got a call from the insurance company. Linda was making a fuss, demanding they send the payout straight to her account.
But I was first in line to inherit. If anyone wanted that money, they had to get past me.
I wasn't about to let anyone take money that didn't belong to them. And I knew those lurking in the dark weren't just going to sit back and do nothing.
On the flip side, my agent hit me up with some good news; the house finally had a buyer, and it was ready to go.
Once all the paperwork was wrapped up, I dropped by Linda's place, an old-school two-bedroom apartment.
The ancient fan kept whirring overhead, sounding like it might give out any minute.
"What? You actually sold the house? Are you really that desperate to ditch us for good?" Linda said, clutching her chest like she was about to pass out from sheer rage.