When Kloe saw me, her face went pale, the phone nearly slipping from her hand.
“Natalie, what — what are you doing here? You said you weren’t coming back till next month.”
Julian froze, glass midair, recognition slowly dawning.
“Wait, you’re the sister from Dubai?”
“I own this house,” I corrected him, stepping into the center of the room, voice steady despite the rage barely held in check. “And I just heard you call my mother the maid in the house I paid six hundred thousand dollars cash to buy for her.”
Julian tried to recover, adjusting his robe with a nervous laugh that didn’t reach his eyes. “Look, Natalie, you’re taking this out of context. It was a joke. Your mom likes staying busy around the house. Gives her purpose.”Start Baby Registry
“Shut your mouth,” I cut in, pointing straight at his chest, close enough that he stepped back. “You have thirty minutes to pack your personal clothes and get out of my house.”
Kloe jumped up, face twisting with anger. “You can’t just kick us out, Natalie. We’ve lived here two years. This is our home. Mom let us stay, so you have no legal right to throw us out on the spot.”
Julian smirked, stepping beside her like a united front. “She’s right. Texas property law protects established residents. You can’t just throw us out without a formal thirty-day eviction notice. Why don’t you calm down, check into a hotel, and we’ll talk about this like adults tomorrow.”
They thought they had me boxed in legally. Thought my years overseas, my exhaustion from the flight, made me easy to bully with a few confident-sounding phrases about tenant rights they clearly didn’t fully understand themselves.
