My mother squeezed my wrist before reading the will and whispered, “If you receive a single dollar, I’ll destroy you”… but when the lawyer opened another file, the entire courtroom discovered who had locked my grandmother up and why.

The office of attorney Silas Thorne was on the second floor of an old brick building downtown. My mother sat to the lawyer’s left, already wearing my grandmother’s pearl earrings before a single line had been read.

“If you get a single cent, I will destroy you,” Miranda whispered to me while digging her nails into my skin. The lawyer began to read the original will which left the house and all savings to Miranda Sterling.

The jewelry, furniture, and books were also left to my mother with the right to distribute them as she saw fit. Miranda looked at me with the serene satisfaction of someone who wanted to see me lose everything.

“See? My mother knew who was truly with her at the end,” she whispered. She stood up and began to speak of her own sacrifices and the daughter’s love she claimed to have shown.

“Jade did not even visit her once in three months, and my mother died wondering why she was abandoned,” she said with venomous cruelty. I felt the floor move because she had built a wall between us and was now using that wall as proof I didn’t care.