Chapter 5 - The Alliance
The words hit the room with the force of a thunderclap.
The baby.
I stared at the woman I had silently resented for four years. The woman who had taken my master bedroom, thrown away my family photos, and treated me like a nuisance. In that moment, none of it mattered. She wasn't an arrogant daughter-in-law anymore. She was a terrified, pregnant woman who had just realized she was married to a monster.
“Gavin, get the car keys!” I barked, my maternal instincts overriding the shock. “We need to get her to the hospital.”
Gavin was completely paralyzed, staring at Alyssa’s stomach. “You’re... you’re pregnant? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I found out two days ago!” Alyssa sobbed, doubling over. “And I was waiting for the right time! Just get the keys!”
He fumbled in his pockets, pulled out his keys, and practically ran out the front door.
I helped Alyssa to her feet. She leaned heavily against me as we walked out to the driveway. The night air was thick and humid. Gavin had his expensive SUV running, the headlights cutting through the dark street.
I loaded Alyssa into the backseat and climbed in beside her, holding her hand. Gavin drove like a madman, blowing through two stop signs before pulling into the emergency room bay at Columbus General.
For three hours, we sat in a sterile, brightly lit cubicle.
The doctor finally came in, smiling softly. “It was a severe panic attack brought on by acute stress, Mrs. Davis. The baby is fine. You’re about eight weeks along. But you need to manage your stress levels, or you risk complications.”
When the doctor left, a heavy, suffocating silence settled over the room.
Gavin was sitting in the plastic visitor’s chair, staring at the floor. He looked up, trying to force a reassuring smile.
“We’re going to figure this out, Lys,” he said softly. “I’ll break it off with Chloe. I’ll sell my shares in the firm. We’ll pay off the loan. We can be a family.”
Alyssa didn't look at him. She was staring at the blank hospital wall.
“Get out,” she whispered.
“Alyssa, come on, you’re just stressed—”
“I said get out!” she screamed, her voice echoing down the hospital corridor. “I don’t want to look at you! Get out of this room!”
Gavin flinched, looking to me for help. I gave him nothing. My face was a mask of stone. He slowly stood up, running a hand over his face, and walked out the door.
When we were finally alone, the fight completely drained out of Alyssa. She turned her head toward me, tears streaming down her face, ruining her perfect makeup.
“I’m so sorry, Eleanor,” she wept. “I’m so, so sorry. I thought... I thought you were just being stubborn. Gavin told me you had millions saved up and you just wanted to make us miserable. I didn't know he was stealing from you. I didn't know he was stealing from me.”
I reached out and gently smoothed her hair, just as I had done for Gavin when he was a little boy.
“What do you mean stealing from you, Alyssa?” I asked gently.
She let out a broken, bitter laugh. “When we got married, Gavin convinced me to put my inheritance from my grandmother into a joint account for ‘investments.’ Yesterday, my debit card declined at the grocery store. The account is empty. Three hundred thousand dollars, Eleanor. It’s gone. He drained it all.”
My heart broke for her. She had been arrogant, yes, but she had been utterly manipulated.
“He’s going to let the bank take your house,” Alyssa cried. “And I have nowhere to go. My parents are gone. I have nothing left.”
I squeezed her hand. A cold, fierce resolve settled deep in my chest.
Gavin thought he had outsmarted two women. He thought because I was old and Alyssa was young, we were both foolish enough to be discarded.
“Alyssa,” I said quietly, leaning closer to the hospital bed. “Do you remember that old green armchair you hated so much?”
She looked at me, confused by the sudden change in topic. “Yes.”
“When Walter got sick, he told me that if anything ever happened, I needed to look inside the lining of that chair.” I paused, making sure she was listening. “I never did. Because I moved it into the storage shed when you asked me to. But Walter was a careful man. He never trusted banks. And he never fully trusted Gavin.”
Alyssa’s eyes widened.
“Gavin forged my name on a bank document,” I said, my voice hardening. “But he doesn't know that Walter left a dead-man’s trust. The house doesn't belong to me, Alyssa. Not legally.”
“Then who does it belong to?”
I looked her dead in the eye.
“It belongs to the firstborn grandchild.”
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Alyssa gasped, her hand flying to her stomach.
“We are going home,” I told her. “And we are going to gut that armchair.”
