My mom texted, “We used your Amazon account to furnish your sister’s new apartment

Evelyn did not go quietly into the night. Like a cornered predator whose territory had shrunk to zero, she went on the offensive.

On Friday night, I received a frantic phone call from Briana.

"Sylvia, she's here," Briana breathed into the phone, speaking in a hurried whisper. "Mom is here at my apartment. She’s screaming."

I grabbed my keys off the counter. "Did you open the door?"

"No! She's banging on it with her purse. She wants me to sign a paper. She brought some lawyer guy she knows from church."

"Don't sign anything. I'm ten minutes away. Put Kostas on if you can."

"Kostas is downstairs, he’s threatening to call the precinct. Just hurry, Sylvia!"

When I screeched to a halt outside the Maple Avenue building, the scene was already spilling onto the sidewalk. Evelyn was standing in the narrow hallway on the ground floor, flanked by a sleazy-looking man in a polyester suit holding a manila folder. Kostas was standing at the bottom of the staircase, holding an aluminum baseball bat loosely by his side.

"You have no right to interfere with family business, old man!" Evelyn shrieked, her voice echoing off the peeling plaster walls. "My daughter was coerced into signing an illegal lease! This whole building is a health code violation!"

"Lady," Kostas deadpanned, "if you don't get your bony ass off my linoleum in thirty seconds, I’m gonna violate your health code with this Louisville Slugger. Get out."

"Evelyn!" I called out, pushing through the heavy exterior door.

My mother spun around. Her eyes were bloodshot, her hair unkempt, the polished façade of the affluent suburban matron completely unspooled.

"There she is!" Evelyn pointed a manicured, trembling finger at me, turning to her lawyer. "That’s her! Sylvia Carter. She fraudulently transferred my daughter's funds, forced an eviction at The Meridian, and caused immense emotional distress! Mr. Vance, serve her!"

The lawyer, looking acutely uncomfortable under Kostas's lethal glare, cleared his throat. "Miss Carter, we represent your mother in a claim of tortious interference and unauthorized financial—"

"Shut up, Vance," I snapped, stepping directly into his personal space. "Did Evelyn mention to you that the police report I filed on Tuesday has her name and IP address attached to an unauthorized twelve-thousand-dollar Amazon transaction? Or that the fraud division of American Express is already processing felony charges for identity theft?"

Vance froze. He looked at Evelyn. "You told me the credit card was a joint account."

"It's family!" Evelyn screamed, her voice hitting a terrifying register. "It doesn't matter whose name is on the plastic! Arthur gave me that family! Sylvia owes me her life! I carried her for nine months! I gave up my career! I deserve that money!"

The stairwell fell dead silent.

From the top of the third-floor landing, Briana was looking down through the iron railings. Her face was pale, illuminated by a single bare sixty-watt bulb.

"You used my name too, didn't you, Mom?" Briana called down.

Evelyn looked up, startled. "Briana, honey, come down here. Get your things. We're going to a hotel. We’re fighting this together."

"Answer me," Briana said, her voice shaking but clear. "Dad called me this morning. He said you took out an eight-thousand-dollar personal loan in my name last year when I turned twenty-three. You told me it was a grant for my beauty school."

Evelyn’s eyes darted between Briana, me, and Vance. "It was an investment in our future! When you became successful, we were going to pay it back!"

"You ruined my credit before I even had a credit score," Briana said. She slowly walked down the stairs, stopping three steps above Kostas. She looked down at our mother with a mixture of revulsion and heartbreak. "Sylvia didn't ruin my life, Mom. You did. You made me think I was a princess, but I was just your excuse to spend money we didn't have."

"Briana, don't you dare talk to me like that!" Evelyn lunged toward the stairs, but Kostas shifted the bat into both hands, tapping it lightly against the baseboard.

*Clack.*

"Step back, lady," Kostas warned.

Evelyn stopped. She looked at Briana, who stood firm. She looked at me, cold and immovable. She looked at Vance, who was already stuffing his papers back into his briefcase.

"You're both dead to me," Evelyn whispered, her voice venomous, trembling with pure malice. "Both of you. When Arthur leaves me with nothing, don't you dare come crying to my funeral."

"Don't worry, Mom," I said coldly. "We won't have to. You'd probably charge admission anyway."

Evelyn spun on her heel and stormed out the front door, slamming it so hard the glass pane rattled in its frame. Vance followed quickly behind her like a stray dog.

Kostas lowered the bat, spat into a nearby brass spittoon, and looked up at Briana. "Stairs need mopping on floors two and three. Water bucket is in the closet. Get to work, kid."