Chapter 5 - The Hotel Confrontation
“Do not open that door, Mark,” I said, flying down the attic stairs so fast I nearly knocked Paul over. “Call the police. I’m on my way.”
I didn’t wait for an answer. I sprinted to my car, my tires screeching as I tore out of my brother’s driveway.
My mind was a blur of rage and grief. Thirty-five years. Every memory I had of my early twenties had been manufactured by the two people who were supposed to protect me.
When I pulled into the parking lot of the Marriott, I saw Richard’s luxury SUV parked diagonally across two handicapped spaces.
I ran into the lobby and ignored the front desk clerk calling after me, heading straight for the elevators. Mark had texted me he was on the fourth floor.
When the elevator doors dinged open, I heard the shouting immediately.
“You stay away from her!” Richard was bellowing, his fists pounding against room 412. “She’s my wife! She’s the mother of my children!”
“Get away from that door, Richard!” I screamed down the hallway.
He spun around. His tie was undone, his hair disheveled. He looked desperate.
“Ellen, thank God,” he gasped, rushing toward me. “He’s trying to ruin us. He’s putting lies in your head.”
I held up the grainy ultrasound strip.
Richard stopped dead in his tracks.
“I went to the attic, Richard,” I said, my voice shaking so hard it cracked. “I found the ledger. I found Dr. Evans’s receipt.”
The silence in the hallway was suffocating.
“Ellen,” Richard whispered, taking a step back. “You were so young. You weren’t married. It would have ruined your reputation. I loved you enough to raise another man’s child, but your mother... your mother said it was a sin.”
“You sedated me,” I said, the horror washing over me anew. “You let them drug me and take my baby, and then you sat by my hospital bed and held my hand and told me I was just sick.”
The door to room 412 clicked open.
Mark stepped out into the hallway. He looked at the ultrasound strip in my hand, and then he looked at me.
“Ellen?” Mark’s voice broke. “Was it...?”
I nodded, the tears finally spilling over. “I didn’t know, Mark. I swear to God, they told me it was a kidney infection.”
Mark looked at Richard. The calm military officer was gone. In his place was a man who had just realized his entire life had been stolen.
Mark lunged.
He grabbed Richard by the lapels of his expensive suit and slammed him hard against the hotel hallway wall. A framed painting rattled and fell to the carpet.
“You took my child?” Mark roared.
“Help!” Richard screamed, struggling uselessly against Mark’s grip.
“I should kill you right here,” Mark hissed, his forearm pressing against Richard’s throat.
“Mark, no!” I grabbed Mark’s shoulder. “He’s not worth going to prison for. Let him go.”
Mark held him for one more terrifying second, then threw him to the floor in disgust.
Richard scrambled backward, gasping for air.
“It’s over, Richard,” I said. “I’m calling the police about what you and Dr. Evans did. And I’m filing for divorce tomorrow.”
Richard looked at me with pure venom. “If you do this, I will cut you off. I’ll make sure the kids know exactly what kind of tramp you were. You won’t get a dime.”
“I don’t want your money,” I said.
Richard staggered to his feet and ran for the stairwell.
I collapsed against the wall, sobbing. Mark wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly, just like he used to when we were teenagers on my mother’s porch.
But my phone buzzed again.
May you like
It was my daughter, Sarah.
Mom, Dad just called me. He says you’re having a psychotic break and leaving him for an old boyfriend. He’s on his way over to my house to get the kids. What’s going on?
