Chapter 1

My phone rang, splitting the quiet of my small teacher's apartment. It was my brother, Kevin. I let it ring three times before answering.

"Amy! You sitting down?"

His voice was too loud, crackling with an energy he usually saved for a winning lottery ticket.

"I' m grading papers, Kevin. What is it?"

"Forget the papers! We' re rich! The tech company, InterCorp, they' re buying the whole block! Jayden saw the map online, our house is right in the middle of it. The centerpiece!"

I heard my sister-in-law, Tiffany, shriek in the background. "Tell her about the condos, Kev! Four of them!"

Kevin laughed, a smug, grating sound. "Four luxury condos, Amy. And millions in cash. Millions."

I stayed silent, staring at the red pen in my hand. I pictured the official letter from InterCorp' s lawyers sitting on my kitchen counter. The thick cream-colored paper, the dense legal text, the astronomical number with my name, Amelia Carter, printed next to it.

My mother, Brenda, got on the phone. Her voice was sharp, dripping with a lifetime of disappointment in me.

"Amelia, are you listening? Your brother just hit the lottery. And what are you doing? Wasting your life on other people' s kids for pennies."

She paused, letting the insult land.

"All that book learning and what did it get you? Your brother hits the jackpot without ever cracking a book. That' s just how life is. Some people are winners, and some are... you."

I felt the old, familiar tightness in my chest. The feeling of being small, of being less-than.

But then my phone buzzed with a text from my daughter, Chloe.

"Mom, Jayden is telling everyone at school you guys are getting bought out. He' s an idiot. I checked the official zoning plan. It' s EAST of the avenue, not west. His house isn' t in it at all. LOL."

A second text followed immediately.

"Don' t you dare tell them! This is gonna be hilarious!"

I looked at the letter on my counter again. The letter addressed to me, for the small, dilapidated rental property my mother forced on me years ago because it was "worthless." The property that, due to a quirk of its lot lines, was the final, essential piece of the InterCorp puzzle. The lynchpin.

I took a slow breath. The tightness in my chest was gone, replaced by a cold, quiet calm.

"Wow, Kevin," I said into the phone, my voice carefully neutral. "That' s... that' s incredible news. I' m so happy for you all."

My husband, Mark, walked into the room, hearing my side of the conversation. He raised an eyebrow. I pointed to Chloe' s text, then to the letter. He read both, and a slow grin spread across his face. He gave me a thumbs-up.

Brenda snatched the phone back from Kevin. "Happy for us? You' ll be begging us for scraps soon enough. Maybe you should try to get back with that rich sleazebag from high school if you want a taste of the good life."

"I' ll keep that in mind, Mom," I said, my voice smooth as glass. "You all should go celebrate."

"Oh, we will," she sneered. "We' re finally getting out of this dump. Have fun with your failing students."

She hung up.

I looked at Mark. He was still grinning.

"You' re going to let them do it, aren' t you?" he asked.

"I' m going to let them do it," I confirmed.

For the first time in my life, their cruelty didn' t hurt. It felt like fuel.