“Darlene, who gave you permission to sell the Delgado estate?”

“My patience is running thin. You'd better have an explanation ready when you come back.”

Before I could say a word, the line went dead.

I pushed open the doors to the living room, and the sight that greeted me made my fists clench instantly.

Odette was sitting in the seat of honor, perfectly at ease, and her twins had already been settled into the nursery as if they belonged there.

“You have the nerve to show your face here! Who do you think you are, selling the Delgado property?”

The moment my mother saw me, she charged over without hesitation and slapped me hard across the face.

“Have you forgotten you're already divorced from Elmer? That house is Delgado property, not something you can sell on a whim! You go buy it back right now, or I swear I'll make you pay!”

She paused, her tone sharpening into a warning.

“Odette just gave birth and her body is still fragile. Don't you dare cause a scene here!”

I looked at her, almost amused. “Didn't I just give birth too?”

The color drained from her face. Her mouth opened, then closed. She had nothing.

Elmer walked over to me with a frown. “Stop making a fuss. I'll compensate you for the baby.”

He extended his hand, holding out his one and only black card.

I stared at that outstretched hand, and a bone-deep chill flooded through me. Hatred so thick it nearly swallowed me whole.

“Is that the same hand you used to strangle my child?”

The living room went dead silent.

Everyone froze, exchanging glances, their eyes wide with shock and barely concealed panic.

“You……what are you talking about?” My mother stammered, tripping over her own words.

“The baby……the baby was stillborn! Don't you dare stand there and throw around baseless accusations!”

“Enough!” My father cut her off without a shred of hesitation.

He looked down at me, his eyes full of open contempt.

“A child with no real parents to speak of. Why would we be afraid of you? Even if you do know the truth, what are you going to do about it?”

“A baby that didn't survive just means it wasn't meant to live!”

The air left my lungs. For a moment, the weight of it crushed me so completely I couldn't breathe.

I slowly lifted my head and let out a cold, sharp laugh.

“Fine. Then every last one of you can join my child in the ground.”

The instant those words left my mouth, the front doors slammed open.

Several court officers in uniform filed in one after another and stopped before me, their posture formal and deferential.

“Ma'am, the acquisition of the Swanson family's assets has been completed. All properties belonging to both the Swanson and Delgado families have been fully inventoried and transferred.”

“Due to your existing inheritance rights with the Swanson family, no acquisition fees were required.”

The officer's words settled over the room like a verdict. The entire living room of the Delgado estate fell into absolute silence.

Every person present stared at me, their eyes churning with disbelief.

The same people who had been hurling insults at me moments ago stood frozen where they were, unable to produce a single sound.

Odette, who had sat there the whole time reaping the rewards without lifting a finger, finally couldn't sit still.

She lurched to her feet, ignoring the two swaddled infants still in her arms, and staggered toward me.

“How?”

She screamed it at me, hysterical, looking like she wanted to tear me apart with her bare hands.

“How can you just take everything from me?”

“I'm the one Mom and Dad raised like a princess! I'm the one who was supposed to be Mrs. Delgado! You're nothing but a throwaway, a stray they dragged back to marry in my place. So how? How do you get to have all of this?”

Her shrieking echoed through the living room. The babies in her arms wailed in terror, but she didn't pull back an inch.

I raised one brow, my gaze steady and unbothered. “Because I'm the real one.”

“All of this should have been mine.”

The family that should have loved me. The marriage that should have been mine. The child that should have been in my arms. They ripped it all away.

Now I was simply taking back what belonged to me.

“You're just on a power trip!” Odette screamed, her voice cracking into hysteria. “It doesn't matter what you do. Your baby is already dead!”

She paused deliberately, twisting every word like a blade into my chest.

“When he died, he was still struggling. He couldn't even cry. And you? You were lying on that bed like a corpse, completely helpless!”

“You couldn't even protect your own child. So what if you have all the money in the world? You'll always be a failure. A pathetic woman who couldn't keep her baby alive!”

Hatred flooded through me so fast and so violently that I could barely breathe. I swung my hand and slapped her across the face.

The force of it snapped Odette's head to the side. Blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. The infant in her arms wailed louder. She stood frozen for a few seconds before the shock registered, staring at me in disbelief.

Before she could erupt, I stepped forward. “Odette, you don't get to say his name.”

“When you killed him, did you stop to think he was a living, breathing human being? What makes you think you have the right to stand here and throw that in my face?”

The murderous intent in my eyes made Odette tremble head to toe. She shrank back instinctively but still refused to yield.

My parents, the moment they saw me strike Odette, lost their minds.

They thrashed against the guards restraining them, lunging toward me like they wanted to tear me apart with their bare hands.

“You actually hit her!”

“You ungrateful traitor! We should have strangled you back then and saved ourselves the trouble of you destroying us today!”

“We spared your life! We pulled you out of that orphanage! And instead of being grateful, you turn around and wipe us out? What kind of heartless, soulless monster are you?!”

“You're nothing but gutter trash! You'll rot for this!”

The filth poured from Bonnie's mouth in an endless torrent.

I drew a long breath. What a joke.

They murdered my child with their own hands, and now they stood here wrapping themselves in the robes of my saviors.

Talking about killing as though it were a favor.

Elmer stood rigid, eyes locked on the property documents the court officers had handed over. His fingers clenched the papers so hard his knuckles went white.

He couldn't fathom it. He was the sole heir of the Delgado family. Every last asset, now listed under my name.

That fortune was the foundation he'd stood on his entire life, the source of every ounce of arrogance he'd ever carried.

How could it all belong to someone else overnight?

“Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!” Elmer's head snapped up, his voice raw and frantic. “You people made a mistake. These documents are forged! There is no way Delgado assets are under her name!”

I met that look of disbelief and, right in front of all of them, produced Old Mr. Delgado's personal seal.

The seal spoke for the man himself.