My lawyer added that any challenge they mounted would fail against the evidence — the financial trail, the written deception, the documented abuse.

I didn’t want to turn the night into a spectacle, so I gave them three days to pack their clothes and personal belongings.

I also made it clear they were barred from approaching or contacting Gwen. The officers handed them temporary protection orders.

My mother glared at me with pure hatred as I turned to go. “The whole town will know you threw out the mother who gave you life!” she screamed after me.

“And they’ll learn exactly why,” I said.

Chapter 4 — The Web of Lies

Over the next three days, Margaret worked the phones — uncles, cousins, neighbors, our pastor — telling anyone who’d listen that Gwen had put a dark spell on me, that a manipulative woman had torn our family apart.