Chapter 4

My blood pressure shot up in an instant.

She wanted to sign over the wedding home we'd bought to her younger brother!

I called Lucas right away, and he hung up on me again and again.

All I could do was get Walter and hurry over to the new place.

The moment the door opened, Hildegarde was sitting on the sofa eating fruit. She cut her eyes at us sideways as we came in.

Robert, at least, stood up and greeted us as "Uncle" and "Auntie."

I looked at Lucas and got straight to the point. "You two are going to sign the house over to Robert?"

Lucas pressed his lips together and looked at Hildegarde.

"That's right. The money's in your pocket, and there's nothing I can do if you won't hand it over, but this house is ours! I have the right to do what I want with it, don't I?" Hildegarde's tone dripped with the smugness of someone who had me right where she wanted me.

"This house is the wedding home I bought for you! How can you just give it away like that!" I demanded, raising my voice.

Hildegarde didn't back down an inch. "So what? The house is mine now, and it's none of your business! Robert isn't an outsider!"

"You're the one who flat-out refused to hand over that three hundred thousand! It's too late to regret it now!"

I was so furious my head went dizzy and I could barely stay on my feet.

Walter steadied me from behind. "Honey, are you all right?"

Lucas just stood there beside Hildegarde, telling her not to get upset, to be careful not to strain herself and hurt the baby.

Robert put on a righteous, high-and-mighty air too. "Auntie, my daughter understands if you don't want to pay, but this house is my sister and brother-in-law's wedding home!"

"If they want to give it to me, that's between us, and you have no right to interfere, do you?"

I clutched my chest, looking at the child I had raised, and my heart turned cold, piece by piece.

Robert makes good money. He'll regularly buy his mother a massage chair worth over ten thousand, and high-end cosmetics for his sister.

But I raised him for over ten years, and I never saw so much as a piece of candy from him!

The more I thought about it, the colder my laugh got. "I have no right to interfere? The deed to this house has my name on it, so how is it that I have no right to interfere?"

Hildegarde panicked. "So what? We agreed from the start that this would be our wedding home!"

"So what nothing. My name is on the property deed, so I have the right to decide what happens to this house!" I said sharply.

After it was renovated, this place had barely been lived in. Lucas had been living with us the whole time since the wedding.

Food, bills, everything under this roof, we covered all of it.

"Mom! If you keep making a scene, I really won't come back!" Lucas suddenly said.

I froze, staring blankly at him. "Lucas, are you saying you want to cut ties with me?"

Lucas wouldn't answer me head-on. "I just want the family to get along in peace. You're the one who insisted on turning it into this!"

"Unless I absolutely had to, I'd never cut ties with you!"

"Mom, don't hold on to the money so tightly. We're all family. What's wrong with helping each other out?"

Looking at the son I had raised all these years, the last bit of hope left in my heart went out with it.

"Fine. Have it your way. We'll cut ties!" I looked at him coldly.

"Mom! You—"

"Then cut them! Lucas, you're their only son. Cut ties, and let's see who takes care of them in their old age!" Hildegarde broke in on Lucas's hesitation.

She patted Lucas on the shoulder. "Don't be scared. Even if you cut ties, once they're dead, you're the sole heir!"

"With just this old woman still around, how many years does she have left anyway? I really don't get it. She's got a perfectly good life and just has to stir up trouble!"

Hildegarde's expression was vicious, and there was a scheming look in her eyes I had never seen before.

With her assurance, Lucas stopped wavering.

"Fine! Mom, then let's cut ties! Your property still comes to me either way, so you'd better think this through!" Lucas's voice shook a little.

I was just about to agree when Chairman Doyle called, and I answered.

"Louisa, send me the bank account number where the property demolition settlement should go. The community needs to register everyone's."

You could have heard a pin drop in that room. Everyone heard Chairman Doyle's voice.

"Mom, what demolition settlement?!" Lucas cried out.