8
told my parents what I saw, warning them to be careful. They assured me they would be.
After my wounds were treated at home, my parents had the staff pack up all of Leo’s belongings begin the process of reclaiming the properties that had been gifted to him
“Our family isn’t short on money,” my father said, his voice hard. “Even after disowning him, we ed you. I will make them all pay for what they did.
throw them out onto the curb. They cancelled all his credit cards and had our lawyers
ould have let him keep a house after all these years. But he should never, ever have target-
and
My mother cancelled all her appointments, and for the first time in a long time, our family
sat
and to press charges against Leo for illegally accessing and distributing the security footage.
down to dinner together.
My father instructed our lawyers to sue Jessica and her friends for dose mation
In the middle of the night, I was jolted awake, choking on
thicke.
I threw open my bedroom door to find the hallway engulfed in flames.
“Dad! Mom!” I screamed, my heart hammering against my ribs. “Fire!”
I ran to my parents‘ room just as they were pulling their own door open. As I rushed toward them, a heavy bookshelf beside me suddenly tipped over.
It crashed down on the back of my head.
I blacked out.
When I woke up, I was in a hospital
The memories of the fire came flooding back. I ripped the IV from my hand and tried to run out of the room, but a nurse who was just entering stopped me.
“Don’t move around. You inhaled a lot of smoke, and you have a head injury. You need to rest.”
“My parents?” I asked frantically. Where are my parents?”
“They’re in the room next door. The firefighters arrived quickly, and you all made it out. Your parents woke up before you did and came straight here to check on you. The doctor told them you were going to be okay, so they went back to their room to get their own IVs.”
Just as she finished speaking, my parents walked in. The nurse reconnected my IV and quietly left.
“Dad! Mom!” I cried, still shaking with fear as I threw myself into my mother’s arms.
My father’s face was grim. “The fire department told us it was arson.”
“The security footage from the house was deleted, but I’ve already got a tech team working on recovering it.”
Just then, my father’s phone chirmed. He looked at it. “The tech says he’s recovered the video.”
