“So what do we do?”

“We give them exactly what they want,” she said, her eyes gleaming. “We set a trap. And you, Loretta, are going to be the bait.”

The plan was audacious and risky and required a performance of a lifetime. I had to walk back into that room and give Colton the very thing he was waiting for: a mother on the brink of collapse.

“He needs to think he’s won,” Helena said. “So broken by his ‘failing health’ that you’ll sign anything. He’ll try to bypass the court by getting you to sign a durable Power of Attorney right there in the hospital bed. When he brings that paper into the room, we snap the trap shut.”

I nodded slowly, the weight of it settling over me. I was going to look into the eyes of the boy I raised and play him exactly the way he’d played me.

“Are you ready for this, Loretta?” Helena asked softly. “Once we do this, there’s no going back. Whatever is left of the relationship will be ashes.”