“Six hundred and twenty thousand,” David said quietly.
The number hovered in the air.
I tried to smile. Tried to be happy for them.
“So… where are you moving?” I asked.
Silence.
David stared at the carpet.
“Well,” he said finally, “we were hoping to stay here for a while.”
My stomach tightened.
I asked the question I already feared the answer to.
“What happened to the money?”
Chloe answered without hesitation, like she was reading a shopping list.
Designer jewelry. A California trip. Secret credit cards paid off.
Three hundred thousand dollars “invested” in a friend’s boutique.
Her sister’s kitchen renovation.
Her mother’s new car.
Every dollar gone.
And now they wanted my house.
The small, quiet home I’d spent thirty years paying off.
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