Chapter 1: The Day They Showed Me Exactly Who They Were
"That degree is worthless, and so are you!" my father shouted seconds before stepping onto the stage at my graduation and h\*tting me in front of more than three hundred people.
My name is Sabrina Lopez.
I was twenty-four years old and had just earned my accounting degree in Miami.
The hall was packed with attendees taking photos, faculty members applauding, and classmates crying with joy.
I was holding my certificate booklet against my chest when the department director announced that I was graduating with honors and that, the following month, I would begin a professional residency with the State Bureau of Financial Auditing.
Until that moment, my father, Raymond, had been seated in the first row beside my mother, Theresa.
The second he heard the word "Auditing," he stopped clapping.
His look changed.
"No," he said out loud.
At first, I thought he was talking to my mother.
Then I saw him stand up, push past people's knees, and walk toward the steps leading onto the stage.
"Dad, no," I managed to say.
He went up anyway.
The first bl\*w turned my face to the side.
The booklet fell to the ground.
The second str\*ck my shoulder when I tried to protect myself.
"You drained us for four years just to end up working for a bunch of bureaucrats!" he shouted.
"After everything we paid for you!"
The auditorium went completely silent.
And then I heard something worse than his shouting.
My mother laughed.
"Maybe now she'll understand that she's not such a big deal," she said from her seat.
I had known that laugh since I was a child.
It was the laugh that came whenever Raymond humiliated me and Theresa wanted to make it clear that she was on his side.
Two security guards rushed toward us.
My father tried to push them away, but before they restrained him, he glanced at me, expecting to see me cry.
Instead, I smiled.
My lip was bleeding and my hands were shaking, but I smiled because, without meaning to, he had just confirmed what I had discovered that very morning.
Three weeks earlier, my father had placed a booklet from his company, Lopez Contracting, on the dining table.
"You're starting Monday after graduation," he told me.
He wasn't offering me a job.
He was giving me an order.
"I already accepted another opportunity," I replied.
His jaw tightened.
"And who gave you permission?"
Theresa stepped in with her usual gentle tone.
"Sweetheart, your father and I sacrificed so much to pay for your private university.
The least you can do is help us."
For years, they had repeated that story.
That they had sacrificed their peace of mind for my tuition.
That they had canceled vacations because of me.
That the business stopped growing because I "wanted to study too much."
I believed them.
Until I started looking for a residence near my future workplace and the landlord asked me to check my credit report.
Four educational loans appeared under my name.
I had never applied for any of them.
Altogether, I owed more than sixty thousand dollars.
But that wasn't what frightened me most.
When I reviewed the tuition payments, I found transactions coming from a trust I had never heard of.
The beneficiary's name was mine.
The person authorizing the withdrawals was my mother.
And the trust had been created by my grandmother Beatrice two years before she d\*ed.
That night, I realized my parents hadn't just lied to me about who had paid for my education.
They had also used my name for something much bigger.
But I still had no idea what it was.
And I couldn't believe what was about to happen...
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What did Raymond and Theresa actually do with that trust — and does Sabrina already have the proof to destroy them?
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