Chapter 4 - Papers on the Blanket
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I stared up at the man I had shared a bed with for over a decade. For eleven years, Mark had insisted that keeping my family assets in a private trust was 'romantic.' He used to tell me that he preferred building something beside me without needing his name stamped on the deed.
It had all been a performance. A long, patient act waiting for a single moment of vulnerability.
"The lake house belongs to my family trust, Mark," I said, keeping my voice as steady as humanly possible. "Whitmore Development is eighty-two percent mine. You own zero shares. You lease your car through the company."
"And as of today, you are medically incapacitated," Diane declared, pulling an expensive pen from her purse and clicking the top. "A paralyzed woman suffering from postpartum confusion cannot run a multi-million-dollar corporation."
"I am not confused," I snapped, glaring at my mother-in-law. "My mind is completely clear."
Vanessa walked over to the plastic bassinet where tiny Lily was sleeping. She tapped her long acrylic fingernails against the clear plastic wall, the sharp click-click-click echoing in the room.
"It would be a terrible shame if social services had to intervene," Vanessa mused, her eyes fixed on my baby. "A paralyzed mother, a father forced to file for full emergency custody due to maternal mental instability... it would take months to sort out in court."
"Get your hands away from my daughter!" I screamed, struggling to lift my upper body. The monitors connected to my chest began to beep rapidly as my heart rate spiked.
Mark placed a heavy hand on my shoulder, pushing me back down into the mattress with ease. "Sign the papers, Claire. We do this nicely, or we ask the hospital ethics board to declare you incompetent before sunrise."
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"You planned this," I whispered, looking from Mark to Diane. "The moment the doctor said the word 'paralyzed,' you ran to draft these."
Vanessa giggled into the collar of her coat. "We didn't plan the paralysis, darling. We just planned around it."
