Chapter 3 – Elena Wakes Up
Chapter 3 – Elena Wakes Up
Two days later...
Rain tapped softly against the hospital windows.
Daniel sat beside Elena's bed, refusing to leave even long enough to change clothes.
Machines beeped steadily around them.
Then...
Her fingers moved.
Only slightly.
But Daniel noticed immediately.
"Elena?"
Her eyelids fluttered.
For several painful seconds, she struggled to focus.
When she finally recognized him, tears rolled silently down her cheeks.
"You came home..."
Daniel leaned forward, carefully taking her hand.
"I'm here."
She tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
The doctor encouraged her to rest.
But Elena shook her head weakly.
"No..."
Her voice cracked.
"You have to know..."
She slowly lifted a trembling hand toward her neck.
"Your mother..."
Daniel froze.
Elena swallowed painfully.
"She said the company belonged to Marcus now."
"And that if I signed the transfer papers..."
"...she'd let me keep the baby."
Daniel's blood ran cold.
"I refused."
Another tear slid down Elena's face.
"Then Marcus injected me."
"He told everyone I'd died from complications."
"And your mother..."
Elena closed her eyes.
"...she ordered the funeral before you could come home."
Every word was recorded by the detective standing quietly in the corner of the room.
Neither Marcus...
Nor Daniel's own mother...
Realized they had just confessed through their victim.
That same afternoon...
Police arrived at the Hayes mansion carrying arrest warrants.
Marcus laughed when officers approached.
"This is a misunderstanding."
Then detectives opened boxes recovered from Daniel's confidential audit.
Thousands of documents.
Bank records.
Security footage.
Audio recordings.
Hidden emails.
Every fraudulent transaction over the last three years.
Then another officer stepped forward.
"We also recovered fingerprints from the syringe."
Marcus's smile vanished.
The forensic report had only one match.
His.
As officers placed handcuffs around his wrists, he looked desperately toward his mother.
She remained silent.
May you like
For the first time in his life...
She abandoned him.
