At 2AM, My Stepbrother Stabbed Me With A Screwdriver. Pain Pierced Through My Shoulder As My Parents Laughed, “Stop Being Dramatic.” Blood Running Down, With My Last Breath, I Sent An SOS Before Blacking Out. What Happened Next Shook The Entire Courtroom…

Chen leaned back. “We’re going to do two things. One, cooperate fully with law enforcement. Two, we’re going to control the civil side. Property. Assets. Any inheritance or equity they’ve tried to use as leverage.”

I blinked. “They want the house. They want anything I have.”

“Then we make it expensive,” Chen said.

He outlined a plan that made my stomach flip: bait them into a meeting under the pretense I was finally “coming around.” Let them think I’d sign documents to help with Dylan’s debt. Get them into a controlled room—with a police officer present, with a neutral witness, with everything recorded.

“A trap,” I whispered.

“A lawful one,” Chen corrected. “Your stepmother thinks she’s smarter than everyone. People like her love paperwork because they think it’s a weapon. We’re going to turn it into a mirror.”

Ruiz watched me carefully. “You don’t have to do this,” she said quietly. “We can go straight to charges and court.”

I thought of Evelyn’s laugh. Of my father’s sigh. Of Dylan’s grin.

“Yes,” I said. “I want them to sit across from me and realize they can’t rewrite reality anymore.”

Chen slid a legal pad toward me. “Then you call her.”

My hands were steady, which surprised me. In a quiet part of my brain, I recognized the feeling: the calm that comes right before action, the same calm I’d felt on the rope at basic training when the voices from home tried to pull me down and I climbed anyway.

I dialed Evelyn.

She answered on the second ring. “What do you want, Kenya?”

I forced my voice to shake. “Mom,” I said, tasting poison on the word. “I’ve been thinking. I… I was wrong. Family is everything, right?”

There was a pause—short, but I could almost hear her greed waking up.

“That’s right,” she said, voice suddenly warm. “I knew you’d come to your senses.”

“I’ll sign,” I whispered. “I’ll help with Dylan’s debt. I’ll do what it takes.”

Evelyn exhaled like she’d been holding her breath for months. “Good girl,” she murmured. “Your father will be so relieved.”

I swallowed. “My military advisor says we have to do it at a lawyer’s office in Austin. It’s… procedure.”

“Of course,” she said quickly. Too quickly. “Whatever you need.”

When I hung up, the room felt oddly quiet, like the air had shifted.