Chapter 6 - Severing The Ties
Two days later, I was finally discharged from the hospital. Dr. Mercer personally wheeled me down to a private rear exit, where my best friend, Maya, was waiting with her car engine running.
""Remember, Nora,"" Dr. Mercer said, squeezing my hand warmly before I got into the passenger seat. ""Strict pelvic rest for another two weeks, daily prenatal supplements, and absolutely no stress. Call my office the second you feel anything abnormal. You and that little one fought through the worst of it. Be kind to yourself.""
""Thank you, Dr. Mercer,"" I said, my voice thick with emotion. ""You saved two lives the night you looked at those scans and refused to look away.""
""I was just doing my job. Now go live your life,"" he smiled.
Maya drove me directly to a secluded, gated townhouse complex she owned on the other side of the county. She had already stocked the kitchen with fresh fruit, safe organic foods, and warm blankets. But our work had only just begun.
While Graham sat in a county holding cell awaiting his high-bail arraignment, I hired Marcus Vance—the estranged, fiercely ethical younger brother of Graham’s own senior corporate law partner. Marcus had spent years watching Graham and Judith's corrupt entitlement from the sidelines and took my case pro bono without a second's hesitation.
""Here is the layout, Nora,"" Marcus said, laying a thick stack of legal documents across Maya’s dining table. ""Judith posted her two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar cash bail through an agency late last night. She is under 24-hour ankle-monitor house arrest at her secondary estate. Graham’s firm, Hayes & Vance, suspended him indefinitely this morning pending the outcome of his felony charges. Their corporate board cannot afford the public relations nightmare of an executive charged with covering up horrific domestic violence.""
""What about our house?"" I asked. ""Judith threatened that I wouldn't get a dime because her name was tied to everything.""
Marcus grinned—a cold, predatory smile that gave me immense comfort.
""Judith loves to bluff, Nora. Her name is indeed on the mortgage deed as a secondary guarantor, but your personal bank records show that your pre-marital savings provided eighty percent of the initial cash down payment. Furthermore, under state civil code, an intentional tort resulting in catastrophic injury pierces through standard spousal division. We are filing an emergency petition for absolute divorce based on extreme cruelty and intentional felony battery.""
""File it today,"" I said without an ounce of hesitation. ""And Marcus? There is something else you need to include.""
I slid the medical ultrasound report across the table.
Marcus looked down at the tiny image, then looked up at me, his eyes wide with shock and sudden fierce protective anger. ""Graham doesn't know?""
May you like
""No,"" I replied firmly. ""And he will not use this child as a pawn to buy his way into a lighter sentence or win public sympathy. I am seeking complete, sole legal and physical custody, with zero visitation rights based on reckless endangerment and domestic violence. I want him legally excised from this baby's existence before it is even born.""
""Consider it done,"" Marcus declared, slamming his hand down onto the paperwork. ""We will strip them down to the foundation, Nora. Every lie they told is about to cost them everything they own.""
