When He Falsely Accused Me, I Exposed His Betrayal

Chapter 5

In the middle of the night, Elara suddenly clutched her stomach and screamed in agony. Blood seeped down her legs, staining the floor, and Dad panicked, fumbling to call an ambulance.

Elara pointed a shaking finger at Mom and shrieked, "It was you! This has to be you! You're jealous I'm carrying a boy! You tried to kill my baby! Julian, this vicious witch is trying to murder our child!"

Tears streamed down Elara's distorted, pitiful face, and she sobbed so hard she could barely catch her breath.

Red-hot rage instantly clouded Dad's judgment. He drew back his leg and kicked Mom square in the chest, his voice dripping with venom as he spat, "Maeve! If anything happens to my son, I'll have you buried with him!"

Coughing, Mom said, "I didn't do this!" She curled up on the floor, writhing in pain, but she still stubbornly defended herself.

No one stopped to listen to her, though. Dad was already sweeping Elara into his arms and speeding off to the hospital.

Left alone on the cold floor, Mom cried silent tears, whispering to herself over and over, "Just hold on a little longer. For Mom, just hold on."

Right then, a call came in from the hospital. The doctor's voice came over the line, soft and gentle. "Is this Ms. Hayes? Your mother took an overdose of pills in a suicide attempt. Her body is too weakened by age for us to resuscitate her successfully; we can only keep her alive temporarily. Please hurry over. Come say your final goodbye."

All the color drained from Mom's face. Her voice broke as she shouted into the phone, "Tell her I'm on my way! I'll be right there!"

She clutched me tight and bolted out the door. She tripped over her own feet again and again, falling hard more than once, and ran every red light in her mad dash. Stumbling and staggering all the way, she finally burst into the hospital room, and there was Grandma, barely clinging to life.

Mom threw herself onto Grandma's hospital bed, screaming in raw, heart-shattering grief, and hot tears poured down her face nonstop.

Grandma's eyelids fluttered open, heavy with weakness. Her clouded, foggy eyes brimmed over with nothing but soft love for my mom, and she forced out her words in ragged, broken gasps. "Maeve... Mommy loves you so much... You're my precious baby girl... How could I bear to let you waste away to nothing trapped in this rotten marriage? Mommy's had a good life... When I was little, my parents doted on me... After I got married, my husband spoiled me my whole life... And you, Maeve, you've always been such a good, obedient daughter. I have no regrets at all... I've lived more than seventy years; that's more than enough for me!"

Grandma lifted her dry, wrinkled hand and brushed it softly over my mom's cheek. "Just let me do one last thing for my Maeve... Let me break those chains that are holding you down, and set your wings free. Your whole life is still ahead of you, my baby... You have to go live a good life, okay?"

The next second, a series of sharp, shrill beeps blared from the heart monitor. Grandma closed her eyes forever.

"Mom!" Mom collapsed over Grandma's cold body, sobbing so hard she could barely draw breath. Deep in the blank, empty darkness of her pupils, a searing fire of fury and hatred blazed to life.

With Grandma gone, the only thing holding Mom back, her only soft spot, was gone.

And now... Mom's counterattack was finally about to begin!