A Lifeline Cut by My Family

I drove my car to a friend's auto repair shop for a routine inspection after my father, Nathan Ashley, finally returned it. He'd borrowed it for a month and even stuffed the trunk with boxes of local specialties from his hometown. A few minutes later, my friend slid out from beneath the car, his face drained of color. "Lyla, who did you piss off? Someone cut halfway through your brake line." A chill raced through my body as I pulled out my phone and called my father. "Dad, someone cut my brake line." The sound of poker chips clacking echoed through the phone. He answered without the slightest concern, "Oh. I had Lillian do it. That old junker of yours was falling apart anyway." My voice trembled. "Why? Do you have any idea that could've killed someone?" His tone stayed perfectly calm. "Lillian's dating a guy from the city. His family wants an $80,000 dowry. Where am I supposed to come up with that kind of money? "Doesn't your company pay for one of those accident insurance policies? I heard it pays out up to a million. "I only told Lillian to cut the brake line a little. It wasn't going to kill you. That insurance payout would've made the perfect dowry for her." Chapter 1 My fingers trembled as I turned on the voice recorder. "Dad, I'm due next week! I came to have my car serviced today, so I'd be ready if I had to rush to the hospital." I clenched my teeth. "You cut my brake line. Were you trying to kill all three of us?" A dismissive snort came from my father, Nathan Ashley, on the other end. "Women make way too big a deal out of having babies. If you go into labor, just call an Uber. Why do you have to drive yourself everywhere? You think you're so special." He paused, calculation creeping into his voice. "Besides, if something really did happen, the insurance payout would cover you and the baby. It might even pay out two million. Then Lillian wouldn't just have her dowry—she'd have enough for a down payment on a condo downtown." "Hell yeah! We cleaned them out!" someone shouted as laughter erupted from the poker table. "Anyway, I'm busy. Quit wasting my time and get back on the road." The line went dead. I stared at my phone, unable to process what I'd just heard. To buy his younger daughter, Lillian Ashley, a home so she could get married, my own father wanted me dead. He'd even put a price tag on the life of the child I was carrying. Ethan Morales, my friend at the repair shop, had heard every word. He looked at me in stunned disbelief. "Lyla, that's your real dad?" My real dad. The words pulled me back into a memory. When I was twelve, I woke in the middle of the night with acute appendicitis. The pain was so unbearable I rolled across my bed, drenched in cold sweat. I begged my father to take me to the hospital. The kitchen smelled sweet with simmering pear compote. He stood at the stove, slowly stirring the pot, while my younger sister, Lillian, who'd done nothing more than catch a slight chill and develop a mild cough earlier that day, sat on the couch watching cartoons. Hearing me cry, my father came out carrying a bowl. His face twisted with disgust. "What's with all the screaming in the middle of the night? You think hospitals are free? Your sister's still sick, and you expect me to worry about you too? Go back to bed. Sleep it off." That night, I didn't even get a glass of warm water. Eventually, the pain became so intense that I collapsed unconscious in the hallway. A neighbor found me and rushed me to the hospital. The doctor said that if I'd arrived just thirty minutes later, my appendix would've ruptured, and I probably wouldn't have survived. When my father finally showed up, the first thing he asked wasn't whether I'd be okay. "How much is this going to cost? We can't afford to treat her." Things like that happened over and over throughout my childhood. So many times that I'd long since accepted one simple truth—in that family, my life had no value. I existed for one reason only: to pave the way for Lillian. Dragging myself out of the memory, I thanked Ethan for offering me a ride and took an Uber home instead. When I opened the front door, late afternoon sunlight spilled across the living room. Trenton sat on the couch, carefully folding tiny baby clothes. He looked up with a warm smile. "Hey, honey. Look at this little yellow duck onesie. Our baby's going to look so adorable in it..." The moment I saw his face, the last of my composure shattered. I hurried over and threw my arms around him, burying my face in his chest as I clung to him and sobbed uncontrollably. "What happened? Lyla, you're scaring me." Panicked, Trenton tried to pull back and look at me. The commotion brought Bridget and Jasper Baldwin, my parents-in-law, hurrying out of the kitchen. By the time I'd managed to explain everything through broken sobs, the living room had fallen into a stunned silence. Tears welled in Bridget's eyes. She helped me onto the couch before disappearing into the kitchen. A moment later, she returned with a mug of warm chamomile tea. "It's okay, sweetheart. Don't be afraid. You've got me." Jasper, meanwhile, was shaking with rage. "That monster doesn't deserve to be called a father. Lyla, call the police right now. Leave the car exactly where it is at the repair shop so the forensic investigators can examine it." Chapter 2 Jasper's decisiveness gave me the strength I needed. After we reported everything to the police, Trenton immediately transferred me to a private maternity hospital with tight security, worried that my father and Lillian might do something desperate. He checked me into a VIP suite. Leaning against the headboard, I picked up my phone. I opened my banking app and found the supplementary credit card under Lillian's name. It had a $100,000 limit. I suspended it. Then I pulled up the mortgage account for the house back home. I'd paid the entire down payment myself, but the house had been put in Lillian's name. For the past three years, the monthly mortgage payment had been automatically deducted from my paycheck. I canceled the automatic payments and unlinked the account. My father's words on the phone had reminded me just how many years I'd spent being this family's personal ATM. I was done. When I finished, I leaned back against the hospital bed. Bridget was feeding me warm chicken broth while Jasper carefully checked over all the baby supplies at the foot of my bed. Watching them, I suddenly found myself thinking back to my wedding. My father refused to contribute a single penny, claiming he needed to save money for Lillian's future wedding. That wasn't all. He actually demanded that Trenton's family pay a $30,000 dowry so he could buy Lillian a new car. Naturally, Trenton's family refused. On our wedding day, during the reception, my father realized Lillian hadn't been seated at the head table and hadn't gotten the biggest lobster on the menu. In front of both families and every guest in attendance, he flipped the table. Gravy and soup splashed all over me. Pointing in my face, he screamed that I was an ungrateful daughter who'd abandoned her father the moment she got married. He even cursed me to die. The entire room fell silent as I stood there shaking, humiliated beyond words. Then Bridget and Jasper walked over. Ignoring the mess on the floor, they each took one of my hands. Jasper patted my shoulder and announced to everyone in the room, "Lyla is a wonderful woman. From this day on, we're her parents." The memory brought tears to my eyes. Just then, my phone rang. It was Lillian. The moment I answered, she exploded before I could say a word, not even bothering to say hi. "Lyla Ashley, what the hell is wrong with you?! "I'm at the tux shop with Hayden Parker right now! The custom tux costs $68,000, and when I tried to pay, the card was declined! The salespeople looked at me like I was some kind of beggar. I was completely humiliated! "Unlock the card right now! Hayden's waiting!" Still as arrogant as ever. This was the little sister I'd spent my entire life giving in to—the one whose college tuition I'd paid, whose job I'd helped her land, even whose dating expenses I'd covered. She'd lived off my money for so long that gratitude had never once crossed her mind. To her, everything I'd done was simply my obligation. I looked at Trenton bustling around the hospital room and spoke in a voice as cold as ice, "Lillian Ashley." I deliberately called her by her full name. "Weren't you the one who cut my brake line to try to kill me?" Silence. The line went completely quiet. I let out a cold laugh. "Then go ahead and pretend I died. Collect the insurance money and use it to pay for your fiance's tux. "But before that, you'd better pray the police don't find you first." I hung up and blocked her number without another word. Chapter 3 The police treated the report as a suspected attempted murder. That afternoon, two patrol cars and a tow truck pulled up outside Ethan's repair shop. Officers taped off the area, impounded my car as evidence, and hauled it away. The scene happened to be caught on video by Gloria Ashley, a cousin from my hometown, Harrison. She happened to be in Featherington on business, and she loved gossip. Without a second thought, she forwarded the video to my father, who was in the middle of a poker game. She even exaggerated what she'd seen in a voice message. "Hey, you've got to see this! The police and a tow truck are there with crime scene tape everywhere! Lyla's car is leaking fluid. I bet she crashed and died!" My father had been studying the cards in his hand. The moment he heard the message, his eyes lit up. "Full house!" He slapped his cards onto the table, grinning so broadly that the wrinkles around his eyes deepened. "Today's my lucky day! I'm about to be rich!" He was so excited his hands shook. He didn't even bother collecting his winnings before calling Lillian. "Lillian! Where are you? Your sister's car got hauled away by the police! Gloria saw it with her own eyes. The brakes must've failed. She's dead! Two million! We've got two million!" Meanwhile, Lillian was still humiliated after having her credit card declined in front of Hayden's family. The moment she heard the news, she straightened her back. She switched the call to speaker and bragged loudly in front of Hayden and his parents. "Did you hear that? My sister and her whole family are dead! That two-million-dollar insurance payout is all mine. Forget an $80,000 dowry. I'll hand your family a million dollars tomorrow!" Hayden's parents exchanged uncertain looks. "Will it really work like that? Insurance companies don't pay out that fast." Lillian puffed out her chest. "Everything Lyla ever had became mine if I wanted it. It's been that way our whole lives. Now that she's dead, of course the money belongs to me." To show off even more, she posted on social media. [Life is so unpredictable. Rest in peace, Lyla and Trenton. As the only one left to hold this family together, I'll take good care of Dad. Tomorrow I'll treat myself to a brand-new Porsche to help heal my broken heart.] Back in my hospital room, my phone lit up. A cousin who had never approved of my father's behavior, Carol Ashley, had sent me a screenshot of Lillian's post. [Lyla, are you okay? Has Lillian lost her mind? Why is she announcing your death online?] Even though I'd expected something like this, seeing those cold, heartless words still made my chest ache. These were my blood relatives. They were standing on my grave, dreaming about getting rich. Jasper caught a glimpse of the screenshot over my shoulder. Veins bulged in his neck as he shot to his feet. "I'm going over there right now and settling this with those animals!" "Dad, don't." I stopped him, locked my phone, and looked up with frightening calm. "Let them enjoy their fantasy a little longer. The higher they soar, the harder they'll fall." The words had barely left my mouth when a sharp pain tore through my abdomen. I gasped. "Trenton..." My face went white as I clutched my stomach. Cold sweat instantly beaded across my forehead. "I... I think my water just broke..." Trenton froze for a split second before slamming the emergency call button beside the bed. At that very moment, my father was dragging Lillian toward the door, with Hayden and his parents hurrying after them. "Come on! We're heading to the hospital morgue to identify the bodies. We need those death certificates as fast as possible so we can collect the insurance money first thing tomorrow morning!" Chapter 4 I went into labor at the hospital a full week before my due date. The nurses rushed me into the delivery room. Outside, Trenton paced anxiously with Bridget and Jasper. Bridget stood with her hands clasped together, praying nonstop, while Jasper never took his eyes off the delivery room doors. Minute by minute, the hours crawled by. Every muffled cry of pain from inside drove another knife into Trenton's heart. Then a commotion erupted near the elevators. "Move! Everybody move! I'm the victim's father! My daughter is dead! What gives you the right to keep me out?" Trenton spun around. My father and Lillian had arrived with Hayden and his parents, marching toward the delivery room with several other family members in tow. They'd gone to the morgue to identify my body, but after asking around and learning my husband's family was at the maternity ward, they'd come straight here demanding money. The moment my father stepped off the elevator, he spotted Bridget and Jasper outside the delivery room. Without noticing where they were, he immediately started shouting, "So this is why my daughter's insurance money hasn't come through yet! You outsiders are trying to steal it! "Lyla Ashley is my daughter. Now that she's dead, every penny belongs to me so my younger daughter can get married! Don't think you're keeping a dime!" Hearing him demand my insurance money outside the delivery room, I let out a bitter smile. The year I graduated from high school, I'd been accepted to one of the country's top universities. I ran home clutching my acceptance letter, too excited to contain myself. My father didn't even glance at it. He ripped it into pieces right in front of me. "College? With what money?" He threw the scraps in my face. "Lillian got into community college. Her tuition's $15,000 a year. Starting tomorrow, you're getting a construction job and paying for her education. "The best things in life should always go to your sister. You owe her." I'd heard those words my entire life. The best food went to her, and so did the chance to go to college. The money to buy a house went to her. And now, in his mind, even the lives of my husband, my baby, and me belonged to her. "You crazy old idiot, shut your mouth!" Bridget finally snapped. "If you scream one more word outside this delivery room, I'll throw you out the window myself!" "You wouldn't dare!" Lillian immediately stepped forward, pointing a finger at Bridget. "You old hag, my sister's dead. That makes me the one in charge now. Hand over the money, or I'll beat all of you too!" She had just rolled up her sleeves and was about to lunge forward when the delivery room doors swung open. A nurse emerged carrying a swaddled newborn, beaming from ear to ear. "Congratulations! Mom and baby are both doing great. It's a beautiful little girl." My father and Lillian froze where they stood. Their smug expressions melted into stunned disbelief as they stared at the nurse. Then another nurse wheeled me out behind her. I was alive and completely unharmed. Looking at their wide-eyed faces, I smiled coldly. "Who told you I was dead?"