Chapter 1

My sister-in-law took over my house in the school district and even stole my daughter’s spot for enrollment.

"My son is the pride of the Steele family. What's wrong with using an extra spot? Your daughter is just a burden. Delaying her schooling won't hurt her!"

In response, I evicted her from my home and deleted her son's enrollment spot.

She didn’t know the principal of the school is my uncle!

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but the enrollment spot for your house has already been locked in. Your child cannot be registered for school right now.”

“What do you mean it’s been locked in?”

I was in disbelief.

My daughter, Maddie, had only just reached school age. How could her enrollment spot already be taken?

“Our system shows that the spot for Summit Elementary was locked three years ago.”

My head began to spin, a loud ringing in my ears.

Three years ago? Summit Elementary?

Wait! That was exactly when Chelsea Steele, my sister-in-law, moved into the house in the Crestview Hills neighborhood!

And Summit Elementary is the school her son Jake was supposed to attend!

She had just been bragging about this on Facebook a few days ago!

Could it be... Chelsea stole Maddie’s enrollment spot?

I was so furious that my temples throbbed.

After hanging up, I went straight to the house to confront Chelsea.

I didn’t even get the chance to unlock the door—Chelsea opened it from the inside before I could.

“I heard a noise at the door. Thought it might be a burglar, but turns out it’s just you, Brianna! Don’t stand there, come on in!”

Ha! Who's the real burglar here?

The way she stood there with an air of ownership, you’d think I was the one trespassing in my own home.

My face hardened.

“No need. I’m here to talk about Maddie’s school enrollment.”

“Chelsea, when we let you borrow the house, we didn’t agree to give you Maddie’s enrollment spot too, did we?”

Chelsea’s smile faltered, and she blinked innocently.

“What enrollment spot? I wouldn’t know anything about that. Maybe it was just locked by accident when I was enrolling Jake. I’m so clumsy sometimes... sorry, Brianna.”

Still lying at this point? My sister-in-law had some nerve!

Before she could finish, I cut her off coldly.

“Really? Because the staff told me you locked that spot for Jake three years ago. Are you sure it was an accident?”

Chelsea’s face flushed bright red.

“Brianna, we’re family. It’s just one spot. Why are you being so stingy?”

“That spot was Maddie’s. What you did, Chelsea, was theft!”

She couldn’t hold it in anymore. Chelsea shot me a vicious glare, raising her voice.

“Brianna, I see right through you. You came here just to start a fight! What do you mean theft?”

“My son Jake is the pride of the Steele family, the only male heir! What’s wrong with using the spot? Your daughter’s just a burden. Delaying her education won’t harm her!”

“And let’s be real, Jake’s going to carry on the family name. Your Maddie? She’ll be married off eventually. Using that spot on her would be a waste! Why not let Jake have this great opportunity?”

I was shaking with rage as I pointed at her, saying each word slowly and clearly.

“Chelsea, you need to understand something. This is my house!”

Three years ago, Shawn’s brother, Lucas Steele, lost everything gambling and had to move away for work, leaving Chelsea and Jake in Shawn’s care.

At the time, we owned two homes—our main house under Shawn’s name, and the other was the school district house I had bought specifically for Maddie’s future schooling.

Since Maddie was still in preschool, and the school district house was too far from her current daycare, it had been sitting empty.

Shawn had the nerve to suggest renting it out to Chelsea.

“Brianna, the school district house is just sitting there. Why not let my brother’s family live in it?”

“They’ll move out once Maddie starts school, and I promise they won’t be any trouble!”

Out of respect for Shawn, I agreed.

But after three years, Chelsea hadn’t paid a single cent in rent! We even covered the utilities and property fees for her!

And if that wasn’t enough, every time she visited our home, she’d “borrow” my cosmetics—brand new, unopened ones.

When I confronted her, she pulled the family card.

“I’m just borrowing a few skincare products. We’re family, Brianna, don’t be so stingy!”

Once or twice, I could let it go. But after a while, I had enough.

Whenever I brought it up, Shawn would try to calm me down with snacks.

“Brianna, don’t get upset. Chelsea grew up with less, so she doesn’t always know better. Her heart’s in the right place, though. Don’t hold it against her.”

I didn’t want to put Shawn in a tough spot, so I bit my tongue and kept my distance from Chelsea’s family.

But now, not only had she freeloaded off our house for three years, she’d stolen Maddie’s enrollment spot!

“Enough! Everyone calm down!”

Just when things were about to get heated, Shawn arrived, panting from running over.

“Shawn, you’re here.”

I filled him in on everything.

With him by my side, I felt more confident, stronger. In all the years we’d been together, Shawn had always been a reasonable man.

Plus, when he had nothing, I was the one who stood by him. I even used my savings to help him get his business off the ground, and he’d always been grateful for that.

I was certain Shawn would back me up this time too.

But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The next words out of his mouth hit me like a punch to the gut.