Chapter 2

Rodeo Drive was a circus of wealth and sunlight. I walked out of the Hermès store, the bright orange box containing a $250,000 Birkin bag feeling weightless in my hand. I had made sure the paparazzi knew I'd be here.

Just as planned, Brenda appeared. She ran toward me, her face a perfect mask of desperation. A teenager with a phone was already filming.

"Ava! Please!"

She grabbed my arm. Her nails dug into my skin.

"They said Dale only has a few months! You're buying purses? Your father is dying!"

I looked at her, then at the phone recording us. I made sure my expression was ice.

"I told you," I said, my voice clear and loud for the camera. "I have plans for this money."

I pulled my arm away from her grasp and walked away, leaving her weeping on the sidewalk.

The video hit TikTok an hour later. By midnight, it had ten million views.

The comments were a flood of hate.

"What a monster."

"Her dad is dying and she buys a bag? SICK."

"I hope she loses it all. Disgusting."

They called me the "Powerball Parasite." The name stuck. Cable news channels picked up the story. My face was everywhere, next to a picture of a frail-looking Dale in a hospital bed.

A talking head on TV pointed a finger at my picture. "This is the rot at the core of our society. A young woman, blessed with unimaginable fortune, who turns her back on the very man who raised her. It's a tragedy."

I sat in my hotel suite, watching it all unfold. I didn't feel a thing. This was just the first step.