Chapter 3 - The Mother's Shadow
The heavy silence between us was louder than the storm raging outside.
I asked Grace exactly what my mother had done.
Grace wrapped her arms around herself as if trying to hold her broken pieces together.
She said I was out of town closing a massive deal for the family company.
She had been experiencing severe cramping and drove herself to the clinic in a panic.
The doctor told her she was pregnant with triplets and that her stress levels were threatening the high-risk pregnancy.
She had called my phone over and over, but it went straight to voicemail.
So she called my mother, hoping for some family support.
Grace said my mother arrived at the hospital an hour later.
But she didn't come to comfort her frightened daughter-in-law.
She brought a drafted divorce settlement and a blank check.
My mother told Grace that I had been planning to leave her for months.
My mother claimed I was already seeing Amelia Brooks behind her back.
I felt physically sick hearing Amelia's name in a story from three years ago.
Grace said my mother threatened to drag her through a brutal, highly publicized custody battle.
She promised to use the family's immense wealth to ensure Grace never saw the children again once they were born.
The only way to keep her babies safe was to sign the papers, take the money, and disappear forever.
I stood frozen, unable to process the magnitude of the betrayal.
My own mother had orchestrated the complete destruction of my marriage.
And she had used Amelia, the woman I was supposed to marry tonight, as part of her weapon.
I reached out to touch Grace's shoulder, wanting to apologize for everything I had failed to see.
Before I could speak, a team of doctors rushed past us and slammed open the door to the examination room.
The monitor beside the little boy's bed began to emit a high-pitched, continuous alarm.
Grace screamed his name and tried to run into the room.
A nurse caught her by the waist, dragging her backward into the hallway.
The little boy was convulsing on the table, his eyes rolling back in his head.
The head doctor shouted that his blood pressure was crashing and his tiny organs were failing.
He turned toward the door and yelled that they needed a bone marrow match immediately, or the boy would not make it through the night.
May you like
I stepped forward without hesitating for a single second.
I told the doctor to test my blood right now.
