The Daughter They Didn’t Want Won The Lottery Chapter 06
I stared at it.
He’d believed her. Three years of us on the same porch, saying I’m always on your side, and my sister’s line about older men had been enough to erase all of it.
I wiped my eyes and dialed 911.
The screen went black.
I hit the power button. Nothing. A weak flicker. Dead.
My last way out was gone.
I threw myself at the door. Kicked it. Kicked it again. Shoulder into the frame until my bones hummed. It didn’t move.
The sun crawled across the carpet. My throat went from raw to numb. I slumped against the wall.
Am I really going to die in here? I’m nineteen. My life hasn’t even started—
When I opened my eyes again, the room was fluorescent white.
Two cops by my bed. A paramedic checking the drip. “She’s awake. She’s okay.”
Later I learned Martha next door had heard me kicking and called it in when nobody answered. My parents got the call in Aspen and caught the next flight home.
The cop didn’t sugarcoat it.
“You locked your nineteen-year-old daughter in a bedroom from the outside. No water. No phone. Fever of a hundred and three. Do you understand what almost happened?”
Dad stepped in with an apologetic smile. “Officer, it was a terrible oversight. It’ll never happen again.”
The second the cop stepped out, Dad turned on Chloe. “You said you unlocked her door.”
Chloe’s eyes filled instantly. Beautifully.
Mom stepped in front of her. “That lock’s old, Robert, it probably jammed. Emma’s fine—she’s awake, isn’t she? Drop it.”
Chloe peeked around Mom’s shoulder, tears sliding down perfectly. “Em, I swear I unlocked it. I would never—”
Dad sighed. His anger dissolved. He always caved.
Mom turned to me. Voice flat.
“Emma. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself. If you weren’t running around like a tramp, we wouldn’t have locked you up in the first place. And now you’re making a scene.”
I lay there and felt nothing.
A year ago I would’ve cried. Argued. Begged her to see me.
Now I just looked at her face and felt exactly zero. Not love. Not hate. Not even hurt.
If I’d actually died in that room, this woman wouldn’t have shed a tear.
That was the last thing I needed to know.
The door swung open. Liam skidded in, red-eyed.