Chapter 7 - The Night They Came to the Hospital
My headache returned that evening.
Doctors had warned me it could happen during recovery, but after the threat from Brenda, nobody wanted to take chances.
Wyatt drove me back to the hospital.
Tests showed nothing alarming.
Observation overnight.
That was all.
Yet somehow Brenda learned where I was.
Shortly after nine, Wyatt stood beside my hospital bed while rain streaked the windows.
Arthur had gone home under police escort.
Detective Ruiz was downstairs.
Two uniformed officers remained near my room.
Then shouting erupted in the hallway.
A woman’s voice.
My mother.
“You can’t keep me from my daughter!”
My entire body stiffened.
Wyatt turned.
“Stay here.”
I almost laughed.
“I’m attached to a hospital bed.”
The door opened.
Brenda appeared between two officers.
Her hair was wet.
Her burgundy blazer looked almost black from the rain.
For one strange second, she looked like the mother I remembered from childhood.
Then she pointed at me.
“There.”
Her face twisted.
“There she is.”
An officer blocked her path.
“Ma’am, stop.”
Brenda ignored him.
“You destroyed this family, Sadie.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
“You always had to take everything.”
“What did I take?”
“Melanie’s future!”
Wyatt stepped forward.
“I was never Melanie’s future.”
Brenda looked at him.
Her expression changed instantly.
Softened.
“Wyatt, sweetheart, you don’t understand.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Sadie manipulated you.”
“No.”
“She always manipulates people.”
“No.”
“You didn’t know her when she was younger.”
Wyatt looked toward me.
Then back at Brenda.
“I know enough.”
Melanie appeared farther down the hallway with another officer and an investigator. She had apparently been brought in regarding part of the ongoing case when the confrontation erupted.
The moment she saw Brenda, she started crying.
“Mom.”
Brenda turned.
For the first time, her certainty cracked.
Melanie’s voice trembled.
“Dad told them everything.”
That wasn’t entirely true.
Gregory had begun cooperating selectively, mostly to protect himself.
But Brenda didn’t know that.
Her face drained.
“You talked?”
Melanie sobbed.
“You said nobody would get hurt.”
I watched my mother.
Something changed.
The performance ended.
No more loving mother.
No more victim.
She pointed at Melanie.
“You wanted Wyatt!”
“I didn’t want this!”
“Yes, you did!”
Melanie shook her head violently.
“You told me Sadie would just leave!”
“And she should have!”
Brenda turned toward me.
“You should have understood.”
“Understood what?”
“That Melanie deserved him.”
Wyatt laughed once in disbelief.
“I’m standing right here.”
Brenda ignored him.
“You always took things that belonged to her.”
I felt something inside me become still.
“I was a baby when you took me from Arthur.”
Her mouth closed.
“You knew Caroline wanted him to raise me.”
Silence.
“You knew.”
Brenda looked away.
That was answer enough.
I continued.
“You spent my whole childhood telling me I owed you gratitude. But you weren’t teaching me gratitude.”
My voice trembled.
“You were teaching me obedience.”
Brenda’s eyes narrowed.
“You would have had nothing without us.”
“I had a grandfather.”
Arthur.
“I had an inheritance.”
Her expression flickered.
“I had a mother who wrote down exactly what she wanted.”
Brenda stepped forward.
The officer stopped her.
“You had me!”
She screamed it.
The hallway went silent.
Brenda’s face crumpled.
“I raised you!”
“And you hurt me.”
“I fed you!”
“And you hurt me.”
“I gave you a home!”
“And you hurt me.”
Each time, quieter.
Finally, I touched the dressing near my eyebrow.
“You did this because I wouldn’t give you the man I love.”
Brenda stared at me.
Then she said the words from the sidewalk again.
“Let’s see if Wyatt still loves you with that face.”
Wyatt moved beside me.
He didn’t shout.
He didn’t threaten her.
He simply took my hand.
Then he looked at Brenda.
“I do.”
Two words.
That was all.
Brenda seemed more defeated by those two words than by the police surrounding her.
The officers arrested her.
As they led her away, she turned toward me.
I expected another insult.
Instead, she whispered:
“You’ll regret choosing him over your family.”
I looked at her.
“No.”
My fingers tightened around Wyatt’s.
“I regret spending twenty-eight years believing you were the only family I was allowed to have.”
The elevator doors closed behind her.
And for the first time since the brick hit my face, I felt safe enough to cry.
But the following morning, Detective Ruiz brought news that would force me to decide what justice actually meant.
May you like
Because Gregory Davis was ready to make a deal.
And what he offered in exchange was the complete truth about Caroline.
