sacrifice.
Claire can pay.
Claire can understand.
Claire can lose because Claire will survive.
I lowered my voice.
“Mr. Hale, can they access anything now?”
“No. At midnight yesterday, administrative control reverted exclusively to you.”
Suddenly, everything made sense.
The panic.
The endless calls.
The grocery text.
They hadn’t only lost access to my paycheck.
They had lost access to the trust.
Dad knew.
Maybe he hadn’t expected the transfer to happen immediately.
Maybe he thought he had another week.
Or maybe my birthday dinner had been meant to keep
