Adrian stepped forward immediately, pulling Jake behind him. "Ivy, have you lost your mind? He's ten years old. What's wrong with you?"
Maya wrapped an arm around Jake, playing the devastated mother to perfection, her other hand resting on her own swollen belly--she was pregnant too, Ivy remembered, with her second child. "Ivy, he was just trying to get your attention. You can't talk to a child like that."
Ivy nearly laughed out loud.
A child? The same one who'd called her daughters "dead weight," who'd suggested feeding them to monsters and laughed while he said it?
Before she could respond, a small, fierce voice cut through the tension. "Don't you dare hurt my mom!"
Ivy turned and finally heard the sound she'd been aching for--Layla, running down the stairs, shaking but resolute, small fists raised as she planted herself in front of Ivy. A second later Aria joined her, chin lifted. "Jake, you need to apologize. You can't treat my mom like that."
They were here. Standing right in front of her, alive. That was all that mattered--there was still time.
Ivy dropped to her knees without a second thought and pulled both girls into her arms, unable to say anything at all. She just held them, trying to carve this moment into her bones, repeating the only words she could manage. "My babies. My babies."
Last time, I couldn't save you. This time, nothing will touch you. The words she couldn't say out loud, she said in her heart instead.
Maya, watching all of this closely, seized her moment--her voice softening on cue. "Jake, your sisters are right. Go apologize." Then, turning to the girls, honey-sweet. "Aria, Layla, you're such good girls. Come here--Jake has candy for you..."
But that trick had already stopped working. Ivy rose quickly, planting herself directly in Maya's path, cutting straight to the point. "You can have the house. But I have one condition."
Her eyes flicked to the calendar on the wall. The countdown had already begun--fifteen days until the apocalypse, nineteen until her due date. Everything needed to be settled fast.
"I'll sell it to you for five hundred thousand dollars. In exchange, Adrian signs the divorce papers. Today."
Adrian's eyes went wide, his voice stumbling. "Ivy... what are you talking about?"
But it was Maya's reaction that gave everything away--a flash of naked hunger, there and gone in an instant. She'd waited years for this, and now Ivy was simply handing it over, asking for nothing but an easy exit and half the house's real value.
"Mom..." Aria's voice was small. "Are you and Dad splitting up?"
Layla clutched at Ivy's hand. "What happens to us? Where will we go?"
Ivy knelt to meet their eyes. "You're coming with me. Trust me. I'll take care of you."
This time, I won't break that promise.
"Okay! Layla and I trust you, Mom." Aria took her sister's other hand, her eyes steady.
That trust nearly cracked something open in Ivy's chest. Her daughters--not even ten years old, with no idea what lay ahead--had chosen to believe her anyway. Nothing had ever meant more.
She pulled them both in tighter than she ever had before.
Adrian, finally shaking off his shock, let out a scornful laugh. "You're about to give birth. Three kids, no money, no plan. You actually think you can handle this on your own?"
Ivy let the moment settle before she answered, her voice calm. "Save it. This is your only chance. Answer now, or I take you to court, the offer's off the table, and you're the ones getting thrown out of my house."
"You--" Adrian wasn't remotely prepared for this version of her. He looked ready to combust.
Maya didn't hesitate for a second. She was already reaching for the papers. "We accept. Adrian, sign. Now."
Jake nodded eagerly. "Yeah! Dad, just sign it! Then it'll just be us! This'll be our house!"
Adrian's eyes moved between Maya, Jake, and Ivy, confusion and unease creeping into his expression. She wasn't the woman he'd spent years learning to control anymore. After all this time, she'd become herself again--proud, unshakeable, radiant.
