Chapter 25 Faith, Fraud, and Family Ties (Lotus)
Joy’s breath caught in her throat. Heat flared up her spine. That voice. That grin. That venom laced with false charm. She knew exactly what he was what he’d done to Lotus. She’d seen it. Felt it. And if he was showing up again, it only meant one thing.
He never connected with anything that wasn’t bad news or trouble disguised as opportunity.
“Stay the fuck away from my brother,” she snapped, stepping forward. Her voice cracked like a whip in the tense air.
Rufus laughed a guttural, mocking sound that curled like smoke and disappeared out the door
But his absence didn’t calm the room.
But become on everyone radar.
“Don’t let that mouse of a man gets under your skin,” Mr. Rei said softly, catching Joy’s arm with a gentle touch meant to ground her fury, not restrain it.
Across from them, Mr. Wu turned slightly, eyes narrowing with polite curiosity. “Lotus, isn’t it?”
Lotus blinked, startled from whatever storm had been circling her thoughts. “Y-Yes,” she answered, voice slightly distant, like waking from a dream.
“We meant what we said,” Mr. Wu continued, folding his hands behind his back. “About helping with the security issue in the neighborhood. You may not know this, but we were close friends with your grandfather. This place” he glanced around the cafe, though clearly meaning the community more than the building, “it means something to us. Always has.”
Mr. Rei stepped forward, slipping a card from his coat pocket. “If you’re not busy this Friday, we’d like to meet again. Same sincerity. Same goal.” He offered the card with an address scrawled in clean, deliberate script. “Trust me, I can be an asset. Meet us at the listed address at . 11:00 am.”
Lotus accepted it, tucking it into her bag. “Okay. Thank you. We’ll try.”
Joy gave a nod so curt it bordered on dismissive, her jaw tight. She didn’t like any of it but she recognized a power play when she saw one. Mr. Rei offered a knowing smile before the two men walked off, their presence lingering in the air like the aftershock of something bigger than it seemed.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Joy turned sharply to Lotus. “What the hell was that about?”
“I don’t know,” Lotus replied, voice low. “But first, we need to find out what’s going on with our little brothers. And their business with that bastard.”
Joy scoffed. “Already on it.” She waved her phone. “Texted him five minutes ago. I'm headed to meet Xavier now.”
Without waiting for a reply, she pivoted and left. Lotus, with her thoughts trailing behind her, texted Cam next:
“Mom’s house. 5 minutes. Come alone.”
Then she, too, left the coffee shop behind.
The house was quiet when Lotus arrived her mother still at work, silence pooling in the corners of each room. She slipped off her shoes and set her things down, sinking onto the living room couch to wait.
A few minutes later, Cam walked in. He wore gray-green basketball shorts, a matching T-shirt, and gray-and-white Nike sneakers casual, unreadable, but alert.
“You called, Lo?” he asked, already sensing tension in the air.
Lotus took a deep breath, steadying herself. “Yes. Because I want to know what kind of business you’re doing with Rufus.”
“Because he showed up at the coffee shop,” she continued, “He mention how you are working for him.”
Cam stiffened. “He’s still my father,” he said curtly. “And honestly, I wanted you to focus on healing. But one day he called me offered me money to fetch a folder from the attic inside a tote labeled with his name. It contained just a black folder with a floor plan and an address and another folder to a legal office Xavier came with me. Seemed harmless at first.
He paused. “ But While helping Mom sort papers for social services and with you in the hospital, I had to stepped in and I found another folder. He left for a moment, then returned with a yellow one for you.” Cam watched Lotus’s face.
“That’s why I was arguing with Mom,” he said, his voice trembling with a mix of anger and disbelief. “The folder showed you got $85,000 in insurance money and inherited property when your father died but Mom took it. One of those properties was the warehouse address in Rufus’s floor plan folder. And what everyone calls their house? It’s actually yours.
She sold the duplex to Rufus for only 5,000 dollars and used the money to set Autumn up paid for her apartment, furnished it, threw her baby shower, even covered Grandma’s rent. She even put some of it on Rufus’s bonds when he got locked up. And the rest?” She let out a sharp breath. “She spent it.”
His tone hardened. “And that’s not all she was on the Supreme Donor list for the church’s new building. Why you think her name is carved on one of the bricks out front? She even got a certificate from the church for donating fifteen thousand dollars. . And I remember you working all summer, doing side jobs just to cover your own expenses through college while she was out here spending your inheritance like it was nothing.”
Shock, anger, and betrayal flashed across Lotus’s expression. The room pulsed with unspoken words and simmering emotions.
Lotus couldn’t believe what she was hearing—what she was seeing. She knew her mother could be selfish, even cold at times, maybe a little narcissistic, but this… this was a new low entirely.
She stood frozen, her thoughts spinning as memories began to resurface. After her father passed, things were rough. Money was tight, every bill a battle. But then something changed. Her mom and stepfather started acting overly nice toward her mother’s side of the family—buying little gifts, hosting dinners, smiling more than usual. Then, almost overnight, they moved out of that cramped two-bedroom apartment into the house her mother lives in now. And right around the same time, Grandma suddenly moved too—as if the whole thing had been carefully orchestrated.
Still, her mother always made it seem like they were barely scraping by. She’d sigh over the light bill, complain about groceries, make Lotus feel guilty for needing anything extra. Lotus learned early to cut corners, to skip what she wanted, to work extra hours so she wouldn’t be another burden on her mother’s “struggles.”
But now seeing the paper trails, the receipts, the bank statements, the proof it all came crashing down. Her mother had money the whole time. She wasn’t struggling; she was strategizing.
And the cruelest part? Lotus remembered the Sunday her mother stood up in church, tears in her eyes, voice trembling as she gave her testimony how God had made a miracle, how through “faith and prayer” He opened the doors for her to buy that house. The congregation clapped. The pastor praised her. But now Lotus knew the truth. The “miracle” wasn’t faith it was theft.