“Stop Crying and Sign!” My Stepmother Snapped as My Father Cornered Me Over My Grandmother’s $20 Million Estate—But the Moment He Raised the Bat, the Front Door Exploded Open

All I needed to do was keep them talking and boasting until the countdown ran out.

“What will you do if I refuse to give you the properties?” I asked, forcing my voice to tremble.

My father crouched down until his red, angry face was only inches from mine, his breath smelling heavily of expensive whiskey.

“First, I’ll break your other arm,” Mark whispered, every word cut with terrifying malice. “Then a high-paid psychiatrist friend of mine will officially certify that you are mentally incompetent to manage your own finances due to severe psychological trauma. Yasmin will become your court-appointed legal guardian, and I will personally sign every single deed over to our family account while you sit in an institution.”

Gillian burst into a loud, mocking laugh from behind her phone screen.

“And by the time you wake up from your heavy medication, Alana, we’ll already be sunbathing on the private dock at the Lake Tahoe house,” she added.

Deep inside my pocket, my phone gave a faint, rhythmic double vibration against my thigh.

Ten minutes remaining on the countdown.

I reached out with my left hand, picked up the black pen, and deliberately allowed my fingers to shake violently against the paper.

“Fine,” I whispered, wiping a tear from my cheek with my shoulder. “I’ll sign everything.”

All three of them smiled at the exact same moment, an ugly, triumphant expression passing between them.

As Mark slid the transfer forms closer to my hand, the final words my grandmother had spoken to me in her hospital room rang clearly inside my mind:

“Sometimes, my dear Alana, the only way to catch a deeply cruel person is to give them enough rope until they believe they’ve already won.”