My name\u2019s Rachel. I\u2019m 19, and last fall, my world fell apart when my parents died in a car crash. One minute they were alive, heading to dinner, and the next, I was standing in a sterile hallway at 3 a.m., clutching cheap coffee, praying it was all a nightmare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the funeral, the house felt hollow. I barely left my room. It was just me, grief, and the silence. Then came the will reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I went in expecting closure. Instead, the lawyer announced, \u201cThe house will be passed on to Ms. Dina.\u201d<\/em> My aunt. My dad\u2019s estranged sister. The same woman who never cared enough to visit us when my parents were alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dina smiled, venom dripping from her voice: \u201cYou heard him. It\u2019s my house now.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn\u2019t breathe. I protested, begged for an explanation, but the lawyer only shrugged, saying the will was signed and valid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two days later, Dina came to the house. She looked at me, smirking, and said: I pleaded. I offered to help with bills. She waved me off like I was nothing. That night, she sprawled on the couch with chips in hand, yelling, \u201cMove, you\u2019re blocking the TV,\u201d<\/em> while I packed my entire life into bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next morning, I stepped outside with tears in my eyes. That\u2019s when I saw it: a black limousine parked at the curb. I thought it was a mistake, but then the door opened, and someone inside called my name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I turned and gasped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sitting inside was Mr. Callahan\u2014my father\u2019s old business partner.<\/strong> He looked at me with kind eyes and said, \u201cRachel, your parents left me something for you. Something they didn\u2019t trust anyone else with. Get in.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I hesitated, then slid into the seat. He handed me a sealed envelope, worn at the edges. Inside was a second will. The real<\/em> one. My parents had left the house\u2014and everything in it\u2014to me. Dina\u2019s will was forged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lawyer confirmed it the very same day. Within a week, Dina was dragged into court. Her smug smile disappeared as she faced charges for fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And me? I walked back into my parents\u2019 house\u2014not as a guest, not as a frightened girl\u2014but as the rightful owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the first time since the accident, I felt like they were still with me, protecting me even after death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My name\u2019s Rachel. I\u2019m 19, and last fall, my world fell apart when my parents died in a car crash. One minute they were alive, heading to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsbreeze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsbreeze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsbreeze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsbreeze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsbreeze.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsbreeze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1921,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsbreeze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920\/revisions\/1921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsbreeze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsbreeze.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsbreeze.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsbreeze.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cYou\u2019ve got one day to get out of my house.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n