Chapter 7 - The Parasite
Two days later, I was discharged from the hospital in a wheelchair.
My physical injuries were extensive: three cracked ribs, a severe concussion, a sprained left wrist, and deep, purple contusions covering my lower back and hips. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the hollow, aching void in my center.
Sarah drove me straight from the hospital to her secure high-rise apartment in downtown Chicago. I refused to go back to the house—not yet.
While I lay on Sarah’s sofa with a warm blanket pulled up to my chin, Sarah sat at her dining table, surrounded by financial printouts, court filings, and police report summaries.
“The grand jury convened this morning,” Sarah reported, setting down a mug of herbal tea beside me. “With the video footage, the preliminary medical examiner’s report on the fetuses, and your sworn testimony, they returned an indictment on all counts within forty-five minutes. Bail was set at two million dollars.”
I took a sip of the tea, feeling the warmth spread through my chest. “Can he post it?”
“Not without liquidating assets,” Sarah said, a dark smile playing on her lips. “And he can't liquidate assets because I filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order freezing every single bank account, investment portfolio, and real estate asset bearing his name, pending the outcome of the criminal trial and our civil lawsuit.”
I set the mug down. “What about Margaret?”
Sarah pulled a blue folder from her stack. “Margaret has been busy. Over the last forty-eight hours, she’s called your phone thirty-two times.”
I picked up my phone from the coffee table. I had turned off notifications two days ago, but the voicemail transcriptions were all recorded.
I clicked on the most recent voicemail from Margaret. Her voice vibrated through the small speaker—sharp, shrill, and dripping with defensive venom:
“Emily! You vicious, ungrateful girl! How dare you put my son in jail?! How dare you make up these filthy lies after everything this family has done for you! Daniel is a good man! He loved you! He gave you a home! If you had just obeyed him and stayed in your place, none of this would have happened! You let him out of that jail immediately, or I will make sure everyone in this city knows what kind of monster you really are!”
I stared at the screen, feeling a cold, dark fury ignition deep within my chest.
“She knew,” I whispered to Sarah.
Sarah looked up from her papers. “What?”
“Margaret knew he pushed me,” I said, my voice dropping an octave as the realization crystallized in my mind. “Look at the timestamp on that voicemail. It was sent six hours after his arrest. In the voicemail, she says: ‘If you had just obeyed him and stayed in your place.’ Those were the exact words Daniel used on the stairs right before he shoved me.”
Sarah’s eyes widened. She grabbed her pen and immediately scribbled a note on her legal pad.
“He called her,” Sarah realized. “He called her from the house before the ambulance arrived, or he called her from his holding cell. He told her what happened, and she encouraged him to cover it up.”
I sat up straight, pushing the blanket aside despite the sharp pain in my ribs.
May you like
“Sarah,” I said clearly. “I want an audit of Margaret’s finances. Every account, every wire transfer, every property title. I want to see where every dollar of that twenty-four thousand went.”
Sarah smiled—a sharp, predatory expression. “I’ve already subpoenaed her bank records, Em. And what I found is going to make you very happy.”
