Chapter 5: The Jackpot and the Judas
\nExactly one week later\u2014June 13th\u2014I was driving back from a wholesale supplier, my trunk loaded with specialty nuts and dried mushrooms. Parched, I pulled into a local convenience store to grab a sparkling water.<\/p>\n
Rhonda, the manager I often made small talk with, was standing behind the register holding a fan of printed state lottery slips.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, Clara,\u201d she groaned, waving the paper at me. \u201cI accidentally hit print on five identical jackpot draw tickets instead of one. My boss is going to chew me out for the void. Do me a solid and take them off my hands?\u201d<\/p>\n
I paused. I was a businesswoman; I didn\u2019t gamble. But a strange, reckless impulse seized me. My divorce was finalized seven days ago. Maybe the slate was wiped clean.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure, Rhonda,\u201d I smiled, pulling out my phone. \u201cIf I hit the jackpot, you owe me a coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n
I tapped my phone to the Apple Pay terminal. The transaction registered: $50.00. I shoved the five identical slips into my purse, completely ignoring the high-definition security camera mounted directly above Rhonda\u2019s head, silently recording the exact moment my destiny shifted.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until 8:00 P.M. that night, eating leftover turkey standing over my kitchen sink, that I remembered to check the numbers.<\/p>\n
I pulled up the state lottery website on my phone and laid the five slips on the counter. I checked the first number. A match. The second. A match.<\/p>\n
My breath caught in my throat. I traced my finger down the row of digits, reading them aloud into the empty apartment. Every single number aligned. I flipped to the second ticket. Identical. The third. The fourth. The fifth.<\/p>\n
My vision tunneled. Five tickets. Each holding a one-million-dollar grand prize. Five million dollars total.<\/p>\n
My legs gave out. I collapsed into a kitchen chair, my hands shaking so violently I dropped my phone. I didn\u2019t scream; the shock was too absolute, too profound. I grabbed the phone and dialed Odette.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet over here,\u201d I gasped when she answered. \u201cNow. Lock the door behind you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twenty minutes later, Odette was pacing my living room like a caged panther, holding the tickets under a desk lamp. \u201cYou absolute psychopath,\u201d she whispered, her voice trembling. \u201cYou actually won five million dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
We laughed until we wept, the sheer hysteria of the situation overtaking us. \u201cUnlucky in love, lucky in money,\u201d I choked out, wiping tears from my face.<\/p>\n
Odette\u2019s corporate instincts immediately kicked in. She made me sign the backs, photographed them, and locked them in my fireproof safe. \u201cUntil the wire hits your account, this money does not exist, Clara. Total radio silence. If you breathe a word of this, the vultures will descend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next few days were a blur of legal trusts, anonymous claims, and tax consultations. When the net amount\u2014over 3.2 million dollars\u2014finally materialized in my secure accounts, I didn\u2019t buy a sports car. I went to work and sold huckleberry truffles.<\/p>\n
But I couldn\u2019t hide it from my children. I invited Declan and Sutton over for dinner and swore them to absolute, unbreakable secrecy. Sutton cried tears of joy, thrilled that I could finally rest. Declan was stunned, swearing he wouldn\u2019t tell a soul.<\/p>\n
I trusted my son. But I underestimated the insidious nature of the family I had left behind.<\/p>\n
Two nights later, Declan was on the phone with his father. Vance was probing for information, asking how I was adjusting to the \u201cstruggle\u201d of living in an apartment.<\/p>\n
Declan, trying to defend my honor, slipped. \u201cShe\u2019s doing great, Dad. She actually got incredibly lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vance pressed. Like a bloodhound catching a scent, he wouldn\u2019t let it go. And Declan, a twenty-year-old kid who still believed his parents could be civil, accidentally detonated the bomb. \u201cShe won the lottery, Dad. Like\u2026 five million.\u201d<\/p>\n
The following morning, as I was rolling up the security shutters at my boutique, my phone vibrated. The caller ID flashed Vance\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
\u201cClara,\u201d his voice came through the speaker, sickeningly smooth. \u201cSo, I heard from Declan you hit the lottery.\u201d<\/p>\n
My blood ran cold. The hunt had officially begun.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chapter 5: The Jackpot and the Judas Exactly one week later\u2014June 13th\u2014I was driving back from a wholesale supplier, my trunk loaded with specialty nuts and dried mushrooms. Parched, I … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-drama-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14019,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14010\/revisions\/14019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redditlovers.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}