“I was 23,” she said. “Terrified. Drowning in responsibilities I wasn’t ready for.”
She gestured toward the house.
“I saw you grieving. I thought you needed them as much as they needed someone. So I made a choice.”
“You set me up,” I whispered.
“I gave them a better life than I ever could have,” she replied.
Then she pulled a thick envelope from her purse and handed it to me.
“My father passed away last month,” she continued. “He left his entire estate to my children as punishment for what I did.”
She glanced toward Ethan and Sophie.
“All they need to do is sign this document acknowledging me as their legal mother.”
Sophie stepped forward slowly.
“And if we don’t sign?” she asked.
Alicia smiled thinly.
“Then the money goes to charity,” she said. “You get nothing. I get nothing. Everyone loses.”
I immediately called my lawyer, Caroline.
Caroline had handled Ethan and Sophie’s adoption all those years ago.
When she arrived and read through the documents, her expression darkened.
She looked directly at Alicia.
“This is intimidation,” Caroline said firmly. “You’re demanding that they disown the only mother they’ve ever known in exchange for money.”
She flipped through the papers again.
“Your father left his estate to his grandchildren,” she continued. “Not to you.”
She looked up.
“They don’t have to sign anything. You have no legal claim.”
Sophie crossed her arms.
