Chapter 8 - The Desperate Ploy
By late summer, the restoration of Hayes Manor was nearly complete. Wyatt and I had stripped away the gaudy, ostentatious gold trim and velvet wallpapers my mother had plastered over the historic walls, restoring the home to Arthur’s classic, warm craftsman aesthetic.
The gardens were blooming again. Roses, hydrangeas, and fragrant jasmine covered the stone terraces where violence had once unfolded. The broken brick had long since been removed from the lawn, replaced by a quiet stone bench dedicated to Arthur Hayes's memory.
One humid evening in August, as Wyatt and I were reviewing blueprints for a new pediatric wing we were funding at Chicago Children's Hospital, the security gate buzzer at the front entrance sounded.
I pulled up the surveillance feed on my tablet. Standing in the pouring rain outside the heavy wrought-iron gates were Linda and Melanie.
Linda was shivering beneath a torn plastic poncho, her face sunken and hollow. Melanie wore an oversized, stained raincoat, her wet hair plastered to her skull, looking entirely unrecognizable from the glamorous, sneering girl who had stood on the porch eight months earlier.
""What are they doing here?"" Wyatt asked, his brow furrowing in irritation.
""Let's find out,"" I said, putting on a light jacket.
Accompanied by Marcus, our head of estate security, Wyatt and I walked down the long, paved driveway to the main gate. The iron bars remained securely locked between us.
When Linda saw me approach, she pressed her frail, shivering hands against the cold iron bars, bursting into frantic, desperate sobs.
""Sadie! Please, darling, open the gate!"" Linda cried through the downpour. ""We have nowhere else to go! Our apartment was broken into last night, they stole the little money we had left, and the landlord locked us out! We haven't eaten a hot meal in two days!""
Melanie looked at me with sunken, haunted eyes, completely stripped of her former arrogance. She was trembling uncontrollably in the damp night air.
""Sadie... please,"" Melanie stammered, her voice shaking. ""I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what I said. I was stupid. I was jealous. Mom and Dad always told me that Wyatt belonged to me, that I deserved everything. I didn't know Dad was going to hit you with that brick! You have to believe me!""
""You stood on the porch and told him I wouldn't move, Melanie,"" I said through the rain, my voice calm, even, and detached. ""And when my blood was pouring onto the grass, you checked your reflection in the glass.""
""I was in shock!"" Melanie wept, gripping the iron bars until her knuckles turned white. ""We're your family! You have ninety rooms in that house! You have tens of millions of dollars! Just let us stay in the carriage house over the garage! We'll clean the floors, we'll weed the gardens, we'll do anything! Please don't leave us out here in the dark!""
Linda fell to her knees in the mud outside the gate, heedless of the filthy rainwater soaking through her slacks. ""Sadie, I carried you for nine months! I am your flesh and blood! God will punish you if you turn your own mother away to starve in the gutters!""
Wyatt stepped up beside me, placing a warm hand on my shoulder. He remained silent, letting me make the decision entirely on my own terms.
I looked down at the woman who had given birth to me, and then at the sister who had tried to steal my happiness while celebrating my pain. I felt no rage. I felt no urge to mock them or gloat over their misery. All that remained was the absolute, unshakeable boundary of a woman who had finally learned her worth.
""You are not my family,"" I said softly, but loud enough to cut through the sound of the falling rain. ""Arthur Hayes was my family. Wyatt is my family. The four hundred workers who keep our company honest every single day are my family. You two are merely ghosts from a nightmare I woke up from months ago.""
Linda let out a shrill, despairing wail. ""Sadie! You can't do this!""
""Marcus,"" I said, turning to our security chief. ""Call the local women's shelter in Aurora. Arrange for a taxi to pick them up outside the gate and pay for three nights of emergency lodging and meals from my personal foundation account. Give them the contact information for state job placement services.""
I looked at Linda and Melanie one last time through the bars.
May you like
""That is the last thing you will ever receive from the Hayes estate,"" I said clearly. ""If you ever come back to this gate, or if you ever approach Wyatt or me again, Marcus will have you arrested for criminal stalking. Do not look for me. Do not call my office. Go live your lives, and pray that you find some measure of decency before your time is done.""
Without waiting for their reply, I turned my back on them and walked up the dry, illuminated driveway toward the warm light of the manor. Behind us, the rain continued to fall, washing away the final remnants of their poison forever."
