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“Sit down, Maya,” she ordered. “You are not leaving.”
I laughed once, thinking she was throwing another tantrum.
“I’m going home.”
“I said sit down!” she screamed.
Julian’s voice changed too.
“Babe, wait.”
Before I reached the door, he rushed forward and locked the heavy deadbolt.
Click.
The sound echoed through the foyer.
Julian stood in front of the door, arms crossed, blocking my way.
“You’re not leaving until you give us your ATM card and PIN,” Eleanor said coldly. “Since you refuse to be reasonable, we’ll get the money ourselves.”
For a second, I couldn’t breathe.
I looked at Julian, the man who was supposed to be my future husband and the father of my child. He stood there like a guard.
“Are you insane?” I whispered. “You’re trying to rob me. Open the door.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“We’re family, Maya. Stop being selfish. I need to look successful in front of investors. You owe us.”
Then Eleanor stepped close enough for me to smell wine on her breath.
Before I could move, she shoved me back against the wall.
The impact knocked the air from my lungs. My hands flew to my stomach.
“Give me the PIN,” Eleanor hissed. “Or the wedding is over.”
Then she smiled cruelly.
“A pregnant woman like you should be grateful anyone respectable wants her. Without Julian, you’ll just be a dumped single mother.”
They expected me to cry.
They expected me to beg.
They thought fear would make me surrender my money, my company, and my future.
But as I looked at Julian blocking the door and Eleanor’s hands still near me, something inside me went cold.
They were not family.
They were parasites.