Chapter 4 - The Welcome Home Party
At 5:30 PM, David’s Uber pulled into the driveway of our estate.
I stood in the center of the massive, completely empty living room. I was wearing a sharp, tailored black suit. I did not look like a grieving, anxious mother. I looked like an executioner.
But I wasn't alone.
Standing behind me were David’s parents, whom I had invited under the guise of an "urgent family meeting." Standing to my left was Richard Sterling, the CEO of David’s wealth management firm. And standing in the kitchen, completely out of sight from the front door, were two FBI agents and Detective Price from the Chicago Police Department.
The front door opened.
David walked in, heavily tanned, wearing a crisp linen shirt and holding a sleek leather duffel bag. He had his phone in one hand and the anniversary watch gleaming on his wrist.
He stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes swept over the empty foyer, the barren living room, and the silent, unsmiling faces of his parents and his boss.
"Maya?" David stammered, dropping his duffel bag. "What... what is this? Where is all our furniture? Why is Richard here?"
He looked around, panic finally piercing his arrogant facade. He put on his best, most practiced face of concern. "Where is Lily? Is she still at the hospital? Did you bring her home?"
My mother-in-law burst into horrific, agonizing sobs, collapsing against her husband’s shoulder.
"We buried Lily twelve days ago, David," I said, my voice echoing off the bare walls, devoid of any warmth or mercy.
David staggered backward, his hands flying to his mouth, initiating the performance of a lifetime. "No! No, my baby! Maya, why didn't you call me?! Why didn't you tell me?!"
"I called you fifty times," I replied coldly. "You rejected them. You told me you were on a digital detox. You told me I was suffocating you."
"I didn't know!" he screamed, tears springing to his eyes, looking desperately at his parents for sympathy. "I turned my phone off for my mental health! If I had known she was dying, I would have swam across the ocean to be there!"
"You did know," I said.
I reached into my blazer pocket and pulled out the forged medical refusal and the ten-million-dollar life insurance policy. I dropped them onto the bare hardwood floor between us.
David looked down at the papers. The color completely vanished from his face, leaving him a sickly, chalky white. He stopped crying instantly. The performance shattered.
"You blocked her cellular therapy so she would die, David," I said softly, the venom in my voice absolute. "You took out a ten-million-dollar policy on your own child, let her slowly suffocate in an ICU, and went to the Bahamas to drink champagne with Julianne."
His parents gasped in sheer, unadulterated horror. His father took a step away from him as if David were a literal monster. Richard, his CEO, looked at him with profound, lethal disgust.
"That's a lie," David choked out, backing toward the front door. "She's framing me! Richard, Mom, you know Maya is unstable! I didn't forge anything!"
"We also know about the Cayman Islands penthouse," I continued smoothly, stepping forward. "And Richard knows about the four million dollars you embezzled from your clients to pay for it."
May you like
David stopped breathing. He looked at his boss, who simply shook his head in disgust.
"It's over, David," I whispered.
