Chapter 3 - The Countertop Discovery
That evening, sitting amidst half-unpacked cardboard boxes in the sunlit living room of Simone’s townhouse, Cassidy’s phone buzzed aggressively against the coffee table.
She picked it up. It was a message from Wren.
Attached to the message was a photograph taken inside the Miller household kitchen.
Cassidy tapped the image to enlarge it.
There, resting on the kitchen counter beside the coffee maker, was the family’s household budget binder—open to the current month's page.
Cassidy zoomed in.
Mortgage.
Electricity.
Water.
Internet.
Insurance.
Beside every single line item, written neatly in Eleanor's unmistakable, looping handwriting, was the same name.
Cassidy.
Even though Cassidy had moved out twenty-four hours earlier, even though she had explicitly stated she was cutting off financial support, her mother had still budgeted every household expense under Cassidy's name as if it were a natural law of the universe.
Then Cassidy noticed something else in the background of Wren's photograph.
In the corner of the shot, through the open doorway of the hallway, Cassidy’s old bedroom door was wide open. Her boxes and suitcases were gone, yes—but someone had already started moving new items inside. A bulky guitar case leaned against the wall, and a familiar stack of comic books sat on the floor where Cassidy's desk used to be.
Brent. They had already reassigned her bedroom to Brent less than twenty-four hours after ordering her out.
But according to the budget lying on the kitchen counter, they still expected her to pay for the house.
May you like
Before Cassidy could even process the absurdity of it, her phone buzzed a second time. Another text from Wren.
And when Cassidy read the first sentence of Wren's message, she realized with a jolt of absolute terror that the mortgage payments and utility bills weren't even the biggest, most dangerous secret her family had been keeping from her.
