It was just after the New Year when my cousin was sentenced to prison for hitting and killing a heavily pregnant woman with his car. The victim’s family was demanding a multi-million-dollar settlement, and I was the only lawyer in the city willing to take the case. After days without sleep gathering evidence, I was about to rush to the courthouse in my cousin’s car when my aunt stopped me. “Seriously? Another poor relative showing up only to beg for money or borrow a ride?” She planted her hands on her hips, her expression a sneer. “You think just because my son is easygoing you don’t even need to ask to take his car? Who gave you the audacity! This is a custom-spec G-Wagen. Even if I charged you a thousand an hour—ten thousand a day—you’re not driving it off this property without cash.” Court was about to start. I held up the files, trying to reason with her. She looked at me with open disdain. “A lawyer who graduated from some third-rate college thinks she can handle my son’s case? Are you kidding me? The heavy-hitters from the top White-Shoe firms were just having dinner with him yesterday!” “I see what this is,” she accused, narrowing her eyes. “You just want to drive my son’s car to look important, don’t you?” I shook my head urgently. “Aunt Brenda, no. Wesley is in serious trouble, I need to—” I didn't even finish the sentence before she slapped me. “Stop with the nonsense! You already drove the car out of the garage. If you don’t pay me now, you’re not leaving this driveway!” As she yelled, she snatched the evidence—the one thing that could save my cousin—and ripped it to shreds. Watching my all-night effort get destroyed, I heard my phone vibrate repeatedly with calls from the courthouse. I simply offered a faint smile. “You don’t need me? Fine. I won’t go. Let’s see how long it takes for my cousin to come home.” 1 “Sienna, I hit someone. Every lawyer in the city is refusing to help me. I have nowhere else to turn!” “The victim was pregnant, two lives, Sienna. And I swear I wasn't drinking, but they found alcohol in my system. Please, you have to get back here, or my life is over!” My cousin, Wesley, had called me in the middle of the night. I’d flown back immediately. It was just after the New Year holiday. Wesley was driving to his company to hand out employee bonuses when he collided with a heavily pregnant woman. She died instantly, a double fatality. Worse, when the police arrived, they charged him with a DUI, compounding the felony. Wesley insisted he hadn't touched a drop of alcohol. He’d thrown half his company’s operating budget at high-profile connections, but no reputable attorney would touch the case—everyone considered it a guaranteed loss. That's when he finally called me. After days of relentless investigation, I’d found the smoking gun hidden in his bathroom: a bottle of potent, alcohol-based mouthwash. It was the only way to challenge the DUI charge. If I could clear him of drunk driving, we could focus on a settlement and securing forgiveness from the victim's family to reduce the sentence. I checked my watch. One hour until the hearing. I didn't have time to go home for my own car, and catching a ride-share was too risky. I grabbed the keys to Wesley's G-Wagen and prepared to leave for the courthouse. That’s when Aunt Brenda materialized, blocking the driveway and motioning for me to get out. “Another broke relative. Always hitting my son up for a loan or his car. Get out!” I rolled down the window. “Aunt Brenda, I’m on my way to a crisis. I'll explain everything later.” She didn't care. She reached in, yanked the door open, and physically dragged me out of the driver's seat. “Your crisis is not my problem! You’re just trying to drive my son’s car for clout while he’s gone, aren’t you?” she spat. “My Wesley is too good-natured, he lets all you poor relatives walk all over him. But why did you pick his most expensive car? How dare you! If you put so much as a scratch on this, your annual salary wouldn’t cover the repair bill!” Assuming she still didn’t know the extent of Wesley’s trouble, I tried to stay patient. “Aunt Brenda, I’m not lying. I’m going to handle something urgent for Wesley. If I’m late, he’s in serious trouble…” She threw her head back and laughed maniacally. “You mean my son begged you to handle something for him? You’ve got some nerve trying to flatter yourself like that!” “What are you, anyway? He has no need to beg you. Stop trying to con me. This car is imported, it’s expensive. Fine, since we’re family, I’ll charge you a thousand-dollar rental fee per hour. If you’re not back by noon, that’s ten thousand dollars!” She stood directly in front of the vehicle. “You pay me what you owe before you leave this spot.” 2 I was genuinely stunned. I rarely interacted with Wesley's family and had never, as she claimed, borrowed anything from them. If I hadn’t been cutting it so close, needing to avoid the risk of traffic or a canceled ride-share, I never would have taken Wesley's car. I had zero interest in taking advantage of them. And honestly, if Wesley hadn't always been relatively decent to me growing up, I wouldn't have taken this toxic, high-risk case in the first place. He was the one who was begging me, and she was demanding an exorbitant rental fee? I anxiously checked my watch again. Another ten minutes wasted. If I was late, Wesley wouldn't have a defense lawyer. The outcome was predictable: either the death penalty or life imprisonment. “Aunt Brenda, I am telling you the truth. Wesley hit someone. The court opens in fifty minutes. I am his defense attorney. You have to let me go.” She froze for two seconds. Her expression suggested she registered the seriousness of the situation. I thought, This is it. She’s going to move. But just as I reached for the door handle, she roared with laughter and slammed the door shut on my hand. My fingers throbbed instantly. “Aunt Brenda, what are you doing?” She stared at me with contempt. “Doing? You have the wildest stories! My son was just out of the city on a business trip two days ago. How could he have hit someone?” “Besides, even if he did hit someone, he knows dozens of high-powered lawyers. Why would he need you, a fresh graduate from some online degree mill?” “I bet you’re the one who’s desperate. You probably begged him, and he threw you a bone, didn't he? Don’t you dare curse my son again! See how I deal with you!” I was numb from her abuse. She’d always looked down on my side of the family. My studying abroad was dismissed as attending a “fake foreign university.” Because Wesley had dropped out and made a pile of cash, she felt she was superior, that no one could measure up to her son. What she didn't know was that I earned just as much as Wesley, and I definitely preferred my own reliable sedan to her son’s ostentatious G-Wagen. I couldn't waste any more time arguing about status. I decided to drop the bomb. “He hit someone and was charged with a DUI. Right now, no one except me will touch his case!” Seeing her hesitation, I immediately pulled the case files from the car to show her. “Look, Aunt Brenda, this is the official filing. My name and Wesley’s are on it. Please, let me go. I have less than half an hour now!” The seconds were dissolving. I was terrified of failing my cousin, of going back on my word. His fate rested entirely on my shoulders. Aunt Brenda snatched the file. She looked at it, not with understanding, but with sheer fury. “Settlement with the family for two million dollars! Sienna Thorne, you’re trying to use Wesley’s absence to steal his company stamp and scam money, aren’t you? Pay the car fee immediately, or I’ll make sure you regret this!” 3 Aunt Brenda held my wrist, her fingernails digging into my flesh, refusing to let go no matter how much I protested. The phone in my pocket vibrated incessantly. It was the court clerk. They were probably calling to remind me, seeing as I was late. I thought, If she hears it from the court, she has to believe me. “The court is calling! If you don’t believe me, listen!” I answered quickly, put it on speaker, and held it near her ear. The clerk’s frantic voice cut through the air. “Ms. Thorne, why aren’t you here? The court is about to start! Your client’s position is already tenuous. If you’re a no-show, sentencing is a certainty. It's either the death penalty or life without parole. If you have any evidence, get here immediately!” I hung up, thinking, Now she finally gets it. Instead, she burst into high-pitched laughter. “Sienna Thorne, you cheap tramp! You’re really desperate, aren’t you? Spending all that money to hire actors to trick me and my son? How many more do you have lined up? Bring them all out!” “And you, a lawyer from a diploma mill? You think you even qualify to step into a real courtroom?” “Without my son, all of you would starve!” I was stunned. I regretted everything. If I hadn't already promised Wesley, I'd wash my hands of the whole toxic family right then. Aunt Brenda pointed triumphantly at the G-Wagen. “You drove my son’s car out of the garage. It’s sitting here baking in the sun. I bet you bumpkins don’t know how bad that is for the paint and the interior.” “So?” I asked, confused about what else she could possibly want. “So, ten thousand dollars is no longer enough! You owe me an extra five thousand for the detailing and maintenance fee!” “And I’m warning you—you drag this out any longer, and you’ll owe me the full purchase price of the car!” Looking at her face, I knew arguing was pointless. I still had fifteen minutes. If I drove fast, I might still make it. I grit my teeth. “Fine, I’ll transfer the money.” Everything could wait until after Wesley's initial hearing. I quickly transferred the funds to her account and reached for the car door to leave. I hadn't even sat down when she grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked me out of the car with all her strength. The pain was blinding. I landed hard on the asphalt. A vicious look was in her eyes. “Did I say you could leave? You paid the rental fee, but we still have to settle the matter of you trying to scam me and my son out of two million dollars!” I was horrified. I genuinely couldn’t believe her level of delusion and malice. When had I tried to scam them? That was the settlement money for the victim's family! Two million dollars couldn’t buy back a life, and the family might not even accept it! My scalp was throbbing. “I am telling you, I didn’t try to steal your money! If you don’t believe me, call Wesley right now!” 4 “Oh, I will call my son right now!” The phone rang for a long time before someone picked up. It was Tiffany, Wesley’s wife. “Hello, Mom? What’s going on?” Hearing her voice, a wave of despair washed over me. I’d forgotten that Wesley hadn't taken his phone with him—he'd called me from his assistant’s line. Aunt Brenda glared at me. “This tramp, Sienna Thorne, says my son hit someone with his car. Is that true?” On the other end, Tiffany was immediately agitated. “Nonsense! My husband said he had an urgent matter to deal with two days ago! There’s no way he hit anyone!” “Mom, don’t you dare let that foul-mouthed woman get away with this! The New Year hasn’t even passed, and she’s already cursing my husband!” “Don’t worry. I won’t let her!” I pulled out the mouthwash bottle. “This is the evidence I found…” I didn't get another word out. Aunt Brenda slapped me hard across the face in a burst of sheer rage. “You tramp, still trying to fool me? I’ll tell you something right now! Even if my son did hit someone, they must have been standing in the road and deserved it! It’s their own fault for getting in the way of my son’s business!” “With all my son’s connections in this town, you think he can’t handle a little thing like that?” I couldn’t help but recoil. “Aunt Brenda, that was a pregnant woman. Two lives. How can you say that?” If this was Wesley’s attitude, there was no way I would help him. She kicked me hard in the stomach. “Are you trying to teach me a lesson? It’s the truth! In this world, the poor have cheap lives!” “And you poor relatives are all the same, like parasites living in the sewer! You can’t survive without my son!” She snatched the bottle of mouthwash from my hand and raised it high. Seeing her intention, I screamed desperately. “Don’t break it! That is the only evidence proving Wesley wasn’t drunk driving! You will regret this!” She was resolute. “What kind of damn evidence? You think I’ll still believe you?” Crash! The bottle shattered, the glass fragments and the clear, strong-smelling liquid scattering across the asphalt. It was the end of the only defense we had. Seeing my panic, Aunt Brenda looked even more pleased. “You told me not to break it, so I did.” I tried to ignore the pain and reached for the case files. They couldn't be damaged, or Wesley would be completely doomed. But Aunt Brenda got to them first. She tore them to pieces while shouting: “Let’s see how you lie now! No wonder my son says you’re the worst of the lot, thinking you’re hot stuff just because you went to college!” “He always dreaded getting a call from your family—it always meant you were asking for money!” I suddenly understood. No wonder he never answered my calls or holiday texts, only replying days later that he was “too busy.” He didn’t want to talk to me because he was afraid I was going to ask him for money. He was just too cheap. My phone rang again. It was the court clerk. “Ms. Thorne, did you run into an emergency? Should I ask the judge for ten more minutes?” Aunt Brenda lunged for the phone. “Ten more minutes of what? You’re saying my son will be sentenced in ten minutes?” She laughed loudly, treating the call like a silly prank. “I’d like to see that! I want to see what happens to my son in ten minutes!” I made up my mind. My voice was calm and steady. “No, thank you. Could you please tell my cousin that Aunt Brenda insisted I stay, so I won’t be coming.” The moment the words left my mouth, Wesley’s enraged shout echoed over the line: “Mom, shut the hell up! I’m serious, I’m in deep trouble! Sienna, my good cousin, don’t listen to her! Get here now, you’re my only chance!” 5 Aunt Brenda snatched the phone back and listened intently to Wesley's voice. Her certainty wavered. Her face went from flushed to pale. “That… that’s my son’s voice? How can that be?” She immediately shook her head. “Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Sienna Thorne, how much did you pay for that AI deepfake of my son’s voice? It must be worth it, considering the two million dollars you’re after.” “My son’s voice has a rasp. He’s a long-time smoker, he always has a little cough. You can’t fool me!” I found her ridiculous. Wesley was under police custody. Of course, he couldn't smoke. His voice would naturally sound clearer. Wesley, who had heard the entire exchange, became even more frantic. “Cousin! Explain it to her! Mom, please, shut up! Are you trying to kill me?” “I bet you have a secret child out there, and you’re trying to get me out of the way!” Wesley screamed, his panic making him lash out. He couldn't have realized in that moment that the person pulling the last life raft from his hands was his own mother. Stung by his accusation, Aunt Brenda looked ready to jump through the phone and tear him apart. “Don’t you dare talk nonsense! I’ll rip your mouth off! I don’t have a secret child, and my son is perfectly fine!” “I AM YOUR SON! Don’t you understand me? I’m about to be sentenced to death! If I go down, your comfortable life goes down with me!” Wesley was right about that. Aunt Brenda's family used to be dirt-poor. If Wesley hadn't struck out and found success, starting his own business, she would never have lived this life of a suburban socialite, thanks to my lazy, good-for-nothing uncle. She was the one stopping me from saving him. I was now morbidly curious to see the look on her face when she realized she was responsible for her son's ruin. “I’m about to go to trial, you need to immediately transfer…” Wesley’s words were cut off as Aunt Brenda furiously hung up the phone. She muttered curses under her breath. “The New Year isn’t even over and he’s cursing himself? My son is not in trouble!” She was utterly convinced. I snatched my phone back from her. Her eyes held a menacing glint, reminding me of a protective mother wolf I’d seen as a child in the countryside. “Sienna Thorne, you malicious bitch! How dare you curse my son! I almost fell for your trick!” She raised her hand to hit me again, but this time I grabbed her wrist and shoved her back hard. “You almost had a chance to save your son,” I said, my voice flat. I sighed dramatically. “Well, I guess fate decided otherwise. The two million dollars you didn’t want to pay? You don’t have to pay it now.” She sneered. “You know you can’t scam me, don’t you? You think you can overpower me because you’re young? I’m calling everyone outside! I’ll make sure you can never work in this town again!” She stormed out of Wesley’s mansion and yelled at the top of her lungs: “Everyone come look! My husband’s nephew’s shameless daughter drove my son’s car without permission—and that’s not all! She hired someone to impersonate my son and tried to scam two million dollars from us!” Within minutes, a crowd gathered outside Wesley’s house. I knew exactly what Aunt Brenda was doing. Wesley lived in a wealthy, exclusive enclave. These non-profit, high-net-worth neighbors were my potential clients. Ruining my reputation here would dry up my business pipeline. Too bad her plan was flawed. With my current standing and connections, I didn’t have time for these small-scale local cases anyway. The crowd buzzed with gossip: “That young girl, so malicious?” “Two million dollars! That’s felony territory. She dared to try that?” “Why wouldn’t she? Young girls these days all try to be mistresses. I caught one just last week! Scamming a little money is nothing. She’s just unlucky to be caught.” Aunt Brenda put on a poor victim act. “You all know how generous my family is to relatives. I never thought she’d take advantage of us like this.” “Look closely, everyone! She’s a lawyer! If you ever need legal counsel, you better be careful!” She gave me a smug, victorious look. “She’s a lawyer? I heard that crowd is nothing but trouble.” “Tell me about it. The lawyer my husband hired last month was a young thing. She even dared to text me and provoke me! This one probably just wants to be a homewrecker, too.” “If she’s trying to scam money, she’s probably been a mistress as well.” “Let’s take pictures quickly so we can warn our friends.” Aunt Brenda beamed as they snapped photos, feeling completely vindicated. Take your pictures, I thought. My assistant has plenty of time to file defamation lawsuits against every single one of you. I’ll make a profit on it. Someone eventually called the police. A siren wailed in the distance. Two officers arrived, asked a few simple questions, and escorted both Aunt Brenda and me to the precinct. I glanced at my watch. Wesley’s hearing had definitely ended.
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