Chapter 3 - The Fire in the Hearth
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For three seconds, nobody in the room moved an inch. They just stared at me in disbelief.
Then Jenna let out a harsh, sarcastic laugh. “Your house? Are you insane?”
Margaret folded her arms, her face contorted with rage. “Sweetheart, my son paid for this property. You don't own a single brick of this estate.”
Nathan wiped the water from his eyes with a linen napkin, his face flushed red with humiliation as he stood up. “You have just made the biggest mistake of your entire life, Rebecca.”
I stared back at him without flinching. “No, Nathan. My mistake was ever believing you were a real man who respected me.”
I turned on my heel and walked toward the carved walnut cabinet standing near the grand staircase. The room remained tense and silent as I opened the top drawer and pulled out a thick blue folder.
When I walked back toward the dining room, the smirk on Nathan's face flickered. Across the front page of the document was the silver-embossed seal of the county registrar.
“What's that?” Nathan demanded, taking a step toward me.
I opened the folder. “The property deed.”
Margaret stepped forward, her voice rising. “My son bought this land! His money built this house!”
“He put down the deposit,” I corrected her smoothly. “But the title, the full purchase agreement, and the mortgage are exclusively in my name. Paid in full using my inheritance from my late grandfather.”
Nathan snatched the blue folder straight out of my hands. “You're lying! You signed the transfer papers last year!”
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He flipped through the legal pages frantically, his eyes scanning the text until his face drained of all color. Realization hit him like a physical blow.
Suddenly, Nathan spun around and hurled the entire folder directly into the roaring stone fireplace behind him.
