Chapter 5 - The Retaliation of the Mother-in-Law
With Patrick stripped of his home and his company, the Callahans were forced to move into a cramped, two-bedroom luxury apartment that Margaret had purchased years ago as an investment property. It was a massive comedown from their ten-thousand-square-foot mansion, and the social humiliation was eating Margaret alive.
She wasn't going to go down without a fight.
On a Friday afternoon, while I was at the house supervising the deep cleaning and restoration of Andrew’s wing for the children, Benjamin ran into the kitchen, his face pale as he held his smartphone out to me.
"Mom... you need to see this. Grandma is on the local news."
I took the phone. Margaret Callahan was sitting in a studio booth with a well-known local tabloid journalist. She was wearing a simple, dark outfit, looking frail and completely heartbroken. She had tear tracks running down her cheeks, though I knew her makeup artist had probably worked overtime to make her look devastated.
"She took everything from us," Margaret sobbed into the microphone. "My poor son Andrew wasn't even in his right mind during his final days. Cynthia kept his family away from him in the hospital. She wouldn't let us say goodbye. And the moment he passed, she produced these suspicious documents and threw his elderly, grieving parents into the pouring rain. She’s a dangerous, greedy woman, and she’s using those six beautiful children as pawns to steal our family legacy."
The interviewer looked appropriately horrified. "And what about your grandchildren, Mrs. Callahan? Do you get to see them?"
"She won't let us near them!" Margaret wailed. "She’s isolating them in that big house. I am terrified for their safety. We are filing for immediate emergency custody of the children to protect them from her unstable behavior."
The phone in my hand rang instantly. It was Rebecca Stone.
"Cynthia, are you watching?"
May you like
"I am," I said, my heart pounding, but not with fear—with an absolute, burning rage. "She’s coming for my kids, Rebecca. That is the one line she should have never crossed."
"Don't worry," Rebecca said, her voice completely calm. "Margaret thinks she’s playing a game of public sympathy, but she forgot that public sympathy relies on clean hands. She just gave us the perfect opening to introduce our counter-evidence in open court. I’ve already contacted the television network. They are facing a massive defamation lawsuit if they don't air our response. We are going to turn her little media circus into her own public execution."
