“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.