“I CAME HOME EARLY TO SURPRISE MY MOTHER, ONLY TO FIND MY WIFE TREATING HER LIKE A SLAVE.”
PART 2
The silence that descended upon the patio was deafening. The only sound was the jagged, panicked breathing of Evelyn as she desperately tried to gather the shattered metal and wood of her beloved sewing machine from the harsh stone floor.
“Marcus!” Chloe gasped, her voice jumping two octaves as she scrambled to compose her face into a mask of innocent shock. “Honey, you’re home early! I… we were just organizing the garage, and your mother tripped. The machine fell. I was trying to help her clean up!”
Marcus didn’t look at his wife. He walked straight past her, dropping his expensive leather briefcase onto the grass, and knelt beside his trembling mother. Evelyn’s hands were blistered, her knuckles raw and bleeding from scrubbing the rough stone. She looked up at him, her tired eyes pooling with tears of profound shame.
“I’m sorry, Marcus,” Evelyn whispered, her voice cracking. “I’m so sorry. I was just trying to help Chloe around the house. I didn’t mean to make a mess. Please don’t be angry with her.”
Even now. Even in this moment of supreme humiliation, the woman who had sacrificed everything for him was still trying to protect the peace.
Marcus stood up slowly. He looked at the pitcher of dirty, soapy water in Chloe’s hand. He looked at the toothbrush on the ground. He looked at the shattered sewing machine. He possessed a brilliant, analytical mind that had built an empire; it took him exactly three seconds to piece together the horrifying reality. This wasn’t an accident. This was systematic, deliberate abuse.
“How long?” Marcus asked, his voice dead flat, staring holes right through his wife.
“Marcus, please, she’s losing her mind,” Chloe hissed, stepping closer and lowering her voice, trying to play the victim. “Since you left, she’s been completely erratic. She broke my imported vases! She ruined my silk dresses! I had to let the housekeeping staff go for the week because she was harassing them! I’m just trying to maintain some order in our home while you’re out making millions!”
“You fired the staff?” Marcus asked. He looked toward the guest house where his mother lived. The door was wide open. From where he stood, he could see the interior. The comfortable furniture he had bought for her was gone. The television was gone. It looked like a bare, sterile prison cell.
“I’m moving her to the Shady Pines facility next week,” Chloe stated, suddenly crossing her arms, her tone shifting from defensive to violently arrogant. “It’s already paid for. You’re never here, Marcus! I am the lady of this house, and I refuse to live with a pathetic, lower-class relic who smells like a cheap diner!”
The absolute sheer audacity of her words struck Marcus like a physical blow. The woman he loved, the woman he had showered with diamonds and luxury cars, was a venomous snake. He took a step toward her, his jaw tightly clenched, ready to banish her from the property right then and there.
“Pack your bags,” Marcus said softly. “You have exactly ten minutes to get off my property before I have security throw you onto the street.”
Chloe didn’t flinch. Instead, a wicked, triumphant smile spread across her face. She reached into her designer handbag, pulled out a folded piece of medical paper, and slapped it hard against Marcus’s chest.
“Throw me out?” Chloe laughed, a sharp, manic sound. “Go ahead. Call security. Call your powerful lawyer friends. But before you do, you should know something, Marcus.” She leaned in, her voice dripping with poison. “I’m fourteen weeks pregnant. If you kick me out, I will take half of every single company you built. I will drag your name through the mud in the press, and I swear to God, you will never, ever see your child.”
Marcus stared at the ultrasound photo attached to the medical document. His heart stopped.
