Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3: THE FATAL TAPES
Three days later, I was called into the hospital administration's conference room along with a police investigator. What they showed me that day made the blood freeze in my veins.
The hospital didn't have cameras inside the patient rooms to ensure privacy, but they had them in all the hallways, pointing directly at the doors.
"Mr. Vance," the inspector began, "we have extracted the camera footage over the past three weeks, ever since Eleanor was admitted. Marissa visited her almost every day, which you know. But look at what happens after she goes inside."
On the screen, Marissa appeared with a gentle smile, carrying a fruit basket, greeting the nurses. But as soon as the last nurse left the room to check on other patients, Marissa immediately walked to the door. She peeked down the hallway, then slowly pulled the door to Room 218 tightly shut.
The footage fast-forwarded. Day after day, like clockwork.
She always waited for the nurses to leave.
She closed the door securely.
The time she spent entirely alone with my mother often lasted one to two hours.
"Did you happen to notice your mother's medical charts?" the inspector handed me a file. "Every time after your wife left, your mother's heart rate spiked. She became agitated, panicked, sometimes crying uncontrollably, and refused to eat."
I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms. "What the hell was happening during those visits?"
May you like
"That is what we want you to find out from your mother," the inspector sighed. "Psychological abuse is sometimes far more terrifying than physical abuse. She was systematically torturing her mind."
My heart felt like it was being crushed. I had always thought of myself as a dutiful son, a happy husband. In reality, I had personally escorted a monster into my mother's hospital room, leaving it to gnaw at her day by day while I was busy elsewhere.
