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Finally, Waylon said simply, “Drive.”
Mona was still drifting in and out of sleep when she heard someone calling her name.
“Mona.”
She slowly opened her eyes and realized she was still in the car. The cold, intimidating man was gone. In his place sat the hypnotist.
“You’re home,” he said.
Mona glanced out the window. Sure enough, they were parked outside. her apartment complex.
She looked at him but didn’t ask whether he’d gotten anything out of her. She knew better. The less she knew, the safer she’d be.
She opened the door and stepped out without a word, never once looking back.
It took her about ten minutes to walk to the building where her family
lived.
The front door was shut. Inside, she could hear laughter–warm, happy, familiar.
To them, it was a perfect evening. And she? She was just an outsider. An intruder. Someone whose very presence would shatter that fragile illusion. of peace.
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Mona swallowed the bitterness rising in her chest, took a deep breath, and rang the doorbell.
After a moment, the housekeeper, Natalie Noble, opened the door.
She froze when she saw Mona standing there. A flicker of surprise crossed her face before she called into the house, “Ms. Morse is back!”
Addie Morse rushed to the door immediately. The moment she saw Mona, her eyes turned red.
“My baby, you’re finally home. Come in, let Mom take a look–have you lost weight?”
She reached out to pull Mona into a hug.
But all Mona could see was the memory from three years ago–her mother Addie charging at her with a knife in court because she refused to
confess.
This book had been added on your bookshelf,
On instinct, she sidestepped the gesture and walked in by herself.
Colton came up just in time to witness the moment and snapped, “What the hell, Mona? You’ve been gone for years–Mom cried herself blind, and Liza hasn’t stopped crying since. Is this how you repay them?”
Mona laughed silently, coldly. ‘Crocodile tears,‘ she thought
She remembered them on the witness stand..
Addie said, “My daughter has always loved drinking and driving. She wears Liza’s clothes, pretends to be her, uses our cards without. permission, and steals from the house to sell.”
Micah Morse said, “Mona had a huge fight with the family that night. She drank heavily and stormed off in the car.”
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Her fiance Eldon Oconnor said, “Mona’s always hanging around with thugs and never comes home. We’ve tried everything with her.”
The people she loved most had painted her as a monster–reckless, shameless, irredeemable.
God only knew what she’d been through.
She’d been lost by Colton at the age of three–trafficked to a rural village and never found.
Her childhood was spent eating pickled vegetables, herding cows, chopping pigweed, cooking, cleaning, and looking after her adoptive parents‘ children.
Meanwhile, her parents adopted Liza and treated her like a princess.
It wasn’t until Colton was diagnosed with leukemia when she was fifteen that they finally came looking for her.
At first, they acted kind–civil, even welcoming. But the moment she donated her bone marrow, the masks came off.
They moved her into a ten–square–yard basement.
They gave her nothing for school–not a dime for tuition, books, or food. Every expense, she paid for herself, working summer jobs and weekend shifts. Most nights, she didn’t get home until after midnight.
They looked down on her for being raised in the countryside–said she was a disgrace. She wasn’t allowed to eat at the table, wasn’t allowed to acknowledge the family name. In public, she was to identify as a housemaid.
And Liza? The adopted daughter lived like royalty–pampered, privileged,
and untouchable.
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Even so, Mona never lowered herself. She worked hard, held her head high, and did her best to live with dignity.
Only to be framed and thrown in prison by the very people she had tried to please.
Now she was out. And the debt they owed her? She intended to collect- with interest.
Before she could get a word out, Addie said, “Mona, why won’t you call me Mom? Are you still angry with me?”
Typical. The performance never stopped with this family. To anyone who didn’t know better, it would look like Mona was just an ungrateful brat- three years in prison and still hadn’t learned her lesson.
Mona lowered her gaze, voice quiet but steady. “I’m just the help in this house. I wouldn’t dare call you ‘Mom.“”
Colton snapped, “If you’re not part of this family, then why are you here? Go on, get out!”
With that, he shoved her.
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