Chapter 7 - The Eviction onto the Sidewalk
The front double doors opened.
I walked out onto the stone terrace, dressed in a soft, tailored ivory wool coat and flat boots. My color had returned slightly, though my steps were measured and careful.
Flanking me were Alexander and Julian Hayes.
"Elena!" Leo shouted, stepping toward the steps. "What the hell is this?! Why are my mother and sister locked outside in the cold?! We can talk about whatever argument you had, but you cannot treat my family like criminals!"
I stopped at the top of the balustrade, looking down at the man I had loved and defended for four years.
"I didn't have an argument, Leo," I said, my voice steady, clear, and devoid of any lingering warmth. "I had emergency surgery to remove our ruptured child while your mother stepped over my dying body to brew tea."
Leo stopped dead in his tracks. The breath was punched out of his lungs. "Our... our child...?"
"You didn't ask how the surgery went when I called you from the ICU, Leo," I continued, each word landing like an iron spike. "You told me not to stress your mother. You told me Agnes had high blood pressure and that I should make sure lunch was prepared before you landed."
"Elena... I didn't know it was that serious! Mom texted me that you had a minor stomach flu!" Leo stammered, looking from me to his mother.
"She knew," Alexander’s deep baritone cut through the morning air.
Alexander tossed a tablet onto the lawn at Leo's feet.
Leo picked it up, watching the unedited security footage of his mother stepping over my bleeding body, followed by the video of Agnes hurling the cast-iron frying pan at my head yesterday afternoon.
Leo’s hands began to shake violently. He stared at his mother in sheer, unadulterated horror.
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"Mom..." Leo whispered, his voice cracking into a broken squeak. "You... you saw her collapse? You threw a cast-iron pan at her incision?!"
"She was disrespecting me, Leo!" Agnes shouted, her voice shrill with unrepentant spite. "She needed to be taught her place! You are the man of this house! Put her in line!"
