Chapter 10 - Blood and Penance
Margaret looked down at the court order. Her hands were shaking so violently that the paper rattled in her grip.
"And what about Lily?" Margaret hissed, glaring at Emma with venomous hatred. "You brought that little bastard into my house today to gloat? To mock me?"
Before Margaret could finish the sentence, Emma took three swift, commanding steps forward. For the first time in her life, Emma stood inches from Margaret’s face, her eyes blazing with an authority that made the older woman instinctively recoil.
"Do not ever speak my daughter's name again," Emma said, her voice a low, terrifying growl that froze every person in the room. "Lily has more dignity, more grace, and more Vance blood in her little finger than you have had in your entire miserable, deceitful life."
Emma reached into her blazer pocket, pulled out the empty gift box Margaret had mockingly placed in front of Lily the night before, and dropped it onto Margaret’s breakfast plate, right into the spilled tea.
"You gave this to Lily last night," Emma said softly. "Keep it. It represents everything you have left."
Richard collapsed onto the floor beside Sophia, both of them sobbing openly. The grandeur of the Vance dynasty, the country club status, the private jets, the endless luxury—it was all evaporating before their eyes in the span of thirty minutes.
Daniel stepped up beside Emma and touched her shoulder gently. "The transport team is outside, Emma. The locks are being re-keyed right now."
Emma turned her back on Margaret, Richard, and Sophia without another word. She walked out of the dining room and stepped into the foyer.
Lily was sitting quietly on the bench, holding up her coloring book. It was a drawing of a small house with a bright yellow sun and two stick figures holding hands.
"Mommy?" Lily asked, looking up with wide, innocent eyes. "Are we going home now?"
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Emma knelt down in front of her daughter, wrapping her arms around her small body, holding her tight against her chest. Tears finally threatened to spill over Emma’s eyelashes, but they were tears of liberation.
"Yes, baby," Emma whispered, kissing Lily’s cheek. "We’re going home. And we are never coming back here again."
