Chapter 3 - The Web of Deceit
The hospital room was quiet, save for the rhythmic, soothing beep of the IV monitor. Maya lay propped up against a stack of pillows, looking smaller than ever in the pale hospital gown. The harsh fluorescent lights had been dimmed, casting soft shadows across her face.
When I pushed the door open, she turned her head slowly. Her eyes searched mine, looking for anger, disbelief, or doubt.
I walked straight to the bedside, dropped to my knees, and buried my face in her hands, letting out a sob I had been holding back since the moment I stepped into that backyard.
"I am so sorry, Maya," I choked out, kissing her knuckles over and over. "I was blind. I let her stay in our lives because she was my mother. I never, ever imagined she could be capable of this."
Maya lifted her weak hand and gently rested her fingers in my hair. "I know, Caleb," she whispered, her voice still rough. "She hid it so well from you. Whenever you were home, she played the doting matriarch. But when you were away in Chicago... the threats started. She told me I was trapping you, that my family came from nothing, and that our baby would be better off raised by her."
"The police found the voice recorder," I told her, looking up into her weary, beautiful eyes. "And they found Arthur Bennett."
Maya’s eyes flared with sudden realization. "Arthur... he was helping her move the funds. Two weeks ago, I found a bank statement on the kitchen counter when Evelyn was out. It showed three hundred thousand dollars transferred from our joint business savings into an offshore account registered to something called E.V. Holdings. When I confronted her, she laughed in my face. She said, 'Caleb is my blood. Everything he owns belongs to me.'"
"She's not going to get away with a single cent," I said, my voice hardening into a vow. "The police arrested her at the house. Arthur is in custody too. Detective Miller said they’re freezing all her assets tonight."
Maya let out a long, shaky breath, closing her eyes as a single tear escaped down her cheek. "Thank God... I was so afraid for the baby, Caleb. In that dark shed, I kept thinking about our little girl—I have a feeling it’s a girl—growing up without a mother, or worse... what Evelyn would have done to us if you hadn't come home early."
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"I'm never leaving you alone again," I promised, pressing my forehead against her uninjured arm. "We're going to sell this house. We're going to move far away where she can never, ever reach us."
Little did we know, Evelyn’s grip on our lives wasn't as easily broken by a pair of handcuffs. Behind the sterile walls of the county jail, my mother was already playing her final, desperate card.
