Chapter 2 - THE COLD REMOVAL
Daniel laid me down gently on my bed, immediately turning on the heated blanket. He brought hot towels, a warm velvet robe, and a mug of steaming chamomile tea.
"Don't move, Mom," he whispered, sitting on the edge of the mattress and gently wrapping a soft towel around my dripping silver hair. His fingers were shaking as he inspected my hand where Vanessa’s heel had dug into my skin. "We're going to the hospital to get your hand X-rayed as soon as she's gone."
"Daniel... the competency papers," I said softly, my voice still frail. "She was trying to lock me away in a state facility."
Daniel’s jaw tightened until the muscles bulged. "I saw them in the study drawer. She forged Dr. Benson’s signature on the preliminary evaluation. She was planning to file them with the probate court on Monday while I was scheduled to be out of state on a business trip."
A tear slipped down my cheek. "I thought you believed her when she said I was getting forgetful."
Daniel took my swollen hands in his, pressing them against his face, his tears wetting my knuckles. "Never, Mom. I knew you were forgetting small things because you were terrified and exhausted. I blamed myself for being so blind. But it ends tonight."
Heavy, hurried footsteps echoed down the stairs.
Daniel stood up. "Stay here."
I listened from my bedroom door as Daniel walked down to the foyer.
Vanessa was standing by the front door, holding a designer suitcase in one hand and her coat in the other. Her eyes were red, but the fear in her face had already turned back into bitter venom.
"You're making the biggest mistake of your life, Daniel," she sneered, wrapping her coat around herself. "Without me, your life will fall apart. Your precious mother is an anchor around your neck! She's old, she's sick, and she's taking up your life!"
"My mother built the business that funded your entire luxury lifestyle," Daniel said, his voice flat and devoid of any emotion. "Every diamond on your fingers, every trip to Paris, every designer dress in that bag was bought with money my mother earned through forty years of sacrifice. Leave the keys on the console."
Vanessa snapped her teeth together in rage. She unclasped her ring, pulled off her house keys, and slammed them down onto the entry table so hard the glass vase rattled.
"I will take everything from you in the divorce court!" she threatened, pointing a long manicured finger at him. "I'll take half your company! I'll ruin you!"
"I look forward to seeing you try," Daniel said calmly. "My lawyers will serve you with divorce papers and a restraining order by 8:00 AM tomorrow. And if you attempt to contact my mother or step foot within five hundred yards of this property, the footage goes directly to the district attorney."
Vanessa glared at him with pure hatred, turned on her high heels, and slammed the heavy oak front door behind her.
The quiet that settled over the house afterward was staggering.
Daniel walked back up the stairs, entering my room. He looked at me, exhausted, battered, but free.
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"She's gone, Mom," Daniel said softly, kneeling beside my chair and resting his head on my knee, just as he used to do when he was a little boy. "She's never coming back."
I stroked his hair, feeling the heavy weight that had rested on my shoulders for two long years finally lift into the night sky.
