I laughed instinctively. My brain refused to accept what I had just heard.
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t act clueless,” Linda interrupted, folding her arms. “A woman on her own doesn’t understand family. We do.”
Something inside me snapped.
“I paid for this house,” I said, meeting his eyes. “Every payment. Every repair. Every bill.”
Ryan stepped closer.
“And I let you live here,” he replied. “That’s enough. This house is for people who actually matter to me.”
It wasn’t the first time he humiliated me. But it was the first time he did it like this—confident, in front of his parents, like he thought there would be no consequences. And they just smiled. No shock. No shame. Like they’d been waiting for this.
