“If it hurts so much, you should just order an Uber, Elena, because I am going to take my mother and my siblings to celebrate at the steakhouse.”
Elena had given birth only seven hours ago, and her hospital gown was still damp with sweat while her newborn daughter slept soundly against her trembling chest. Her husband Brandon adjusted his expensive watch and checked his reflection in the mirror to make sure his designer shirt was perfectly smooth and unwrinkled.
“Sir, your wife cannot be left alone right now because she needs rest and professional help to recover from the delivery,” the nurse said with her mouth hanging open in shock.
Brandon let out a cold laugh and told the nurse not to exaggerate since his mother had four children and was already back in the kitchen the very next day. His mother Adelaide lifted her chin with pride as if she had just received a grand award for her past labor.
“Exactly, and young girls today seem to think that having a baby makes them queens who deserve a throne for doing something so natural,” Adelaide added with a sneer.
Elena looked at Brandon and hoped for a small sign of shame or an apology, but he was far too busy checking the notifications on his family group chat. His sister Courtney walked into the room wearing a bright red dress and carrying a designer bag before announcing that the table was already waiting for them.
“We are not going to lose our reservation on the terrace just because of a postpartum tantrum, so let us get moving right now,” Courtney said with an air of annoyance.
The word tantrum felt like a physical blow to Elena because she had spent the last three years paying their debts and covering up their many lies. She had endured their constant scorn and fake smiles while supporting the entire family with her own hard earned resources.
“Brandon, are you really going to walk out and leave me here in this condition?” Elena whispered while feeling her blood run cold.
He walked over to the bed and spoke in a low, cruel voice to ensure that no witnesses would hear how he was intentionally humiliating her.
“Do not make me look bad in front of my family today since we already did more than enough just by accepting you into our circle,” Brandon muttered.
Adelaide began rummaging through the diaper bag with a look of disgust and claimed that Elena had absolutely no taste in baby clothes.
“We will have to buy her something decent later if this little girl actually belongs to our family lineage,” the mother-in-law said while the nurse tried to intervene.
The nurse told the woman to respect the patient, but Elena felt a strange silence wash over her as if an old door had finally shut for good. Brandon grabbed the keys to the luxury van that Elena had purchased with her own company money and kissed the baby’s head as a mere formality.
“Do not bother calling me tonight, and we will talk like two adults when I eventually get back home tomorrow,” he said as he walked toward the door.
Elena asked him how she was supposed to get home the next day, but he simply told her to figure it out herself without even turning around to look at her. She cried for exactly two minutes before looking down at her daughter and reaching for her phone to make a call that would change everything.
She did not call her mother or a friend, but instead dialed her attorney Mr. Henderson to see if he was available to talk about their secret plan.
“Mrs. Elena, has the baby arrived yet and is everything going well with the birth and your health?” Mr. Henderson asked with a tone of genuine concern.
Elena swallowed hard and explained that Brandon had left her alone in the hospital so he could go out for a fancy dinner with his family. There was a long and heavy silence on the line before the lawyer asked if he should finally activate the legal protocol they had prepared.
“I want you to activate everything including the bank accounts, the credit cards, the vehicles, and all powers of attorney starting this very moment,” Elena commanded.
At ten thirty in the evening, while Brandon was posting photos of expensive drinks and Adelaide was smiling in front of a table full of seafood, Elena’s phone began to vibrate. It was Brandon calling her back, and when she answered, his voice no longer sounded arrogant but was filled with a sense of genuine panic.
“Elena, what exactly did you do to us because all of our cards are being declined and the van will not even start,” he stammered over the phone.
She looked out at the city lights of Maple Grove and realized that no one would ever believe the massive downfall that was about to happen.
“What do you mean when you say you have nothing left?” Elena asked while watching the cold glow of the city through her window.
Brandon was breathing heavily and explained that the valet told him the van was flagged as immobilized by a GPS tracking system.
“My father tried to pay for the dinner and his account is frozen, and now my mother is screaming because the country club canceled her membership,” he shouted.
Elena stroked her daughter’s back and told him that she had only done what she should have done a very long time ago. In the background, she could hear the furious voice of Adelaide calling her a gold digger and telling her to stop playing games with them.
Elena let out a brief laugh because they had called her that for years whenever they thought she was out of earshot. They saw her as an unremarkable orphan with no family name, but they never knew that she was the actual owner of the massive Summit Realty firm.