while also giving them a child.
She knew he stood to profit.
She simply hadn’t known how much.
Whatever sympathy I still had for her ended there.
Eight months later, I bought a townhouse with tall windows and a small garden.
On Easter morning, I drank coffee outside while sunlight spread across the wooden deck.
No arguments.
No contracts.
No one telling me what I owed them with my own body.
My phone buzzed.
Mom.
I let it ring.
Then I opened an email confirming my promotion to chief compliance officer.
I smiled.
For years, my family had treated me as the useless daughter.
In the end, I had simply done exactly what they always demanded.
I finally made myself useful.
Just not to them.
