Chapter 6 - A Mother’s True Colors
The arrest of Eleanor Campbell sent shockwaves through our extended family and the local community. Within three hours of her detention, the news had leaked to the local evening paper: Prominent Suburban Socialite Arrested for Massive Trust Fraud at Local Hospital.
Tessa, however, was still at large.
She had fled the hospital grounds the moment security escorted her outside, leaving my mother to face the ombudsman alone. For nearly five hours, Tessa’s phone had been switched off, but as the evening shadows lengthened across my hospital room, the bedside landline began to chime.
Elena looked at the caller ID display. ""It’s an unlisted local mobile number. Do you want me to block it?""
""No,"" I said, adjusting the pillows behind my head. ""Put it on speakerphone. Let her talk.""
Elena pressed the speaker button.
""Maya! You sociopath!"" Tessa's voice exploded into the quiet room, trembling with hysterical fury. ""What did you do? What did you tell those cops? Mom is sitting in a holding cell at the central precinct, and they’re refusing to set bail until the magistrate arrives tomorrow morning! Do you have any idea what you’ve done to our family?""
I stared at the black telephone receiver on the wall. For years, that voice had commanded my submission. Whenever Tessa used that tone, I had scrambled to apologize, to smooth things over, to offer her whatever she wanted just to make the screaming stop.
Now, hearing it through the lens of truth, she sounded small, desperate, and pathetic.
""I didn't do anything, Tessa,"" I answered, my tone cool and measured. ""Mom stole two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars from my inheritance to fund your failed company. You both committed crimes. I am simply letting the law run its course.""
""That money was ours!"" Tessa screamed, completely unrepentant. ""Grandma loved both of us, but she was old and senile when she wrote that will! She didn't know that my business had real potential! I was building an empire that would have supported all of us! You were just going to waste that money paying off stupid student loans and living in some cheap apartment! I was trying to make our family important!""
""You weren't building an empire, Tessa,"" I said quietly. ""You were playing dress-up with my future. You blew through a quarter of a million dollars on designer clothes, first-class flights to Miami, and lavish parties for people who abandoned you the second the cash ran dry. You’re not a CEO. You’re a thief.""
""You ungrateful little wretch!"" she snarled. ""You think you've won? You think because you're lying in that hospital bed pretending to be half-dead that everyone is going to take your side? I am coming back to that hospital, Maya. I am going to tell every single doctor that you’re a drug addict who stole those funds yourself! I will ruin you! You will never work as a nurse in this state! I will make sure everyone knows you’re a fraud!""
""Tessa,"" I interrupted, my voice dropping to a whisper that commanded complete authority. ""You should probably look out your rearview mirror.""
""What?"" she sputtered.
Through the phone, I heard the faint, rising wail of police sirens in the background, followed by the sudden squeal of tires on wet pavement.
""Tessa Campbell,"" a loud, amplified voice boomed through an external megaphone over her end of the call. ""This is the Highway Patrol. Step out of the vehicle with your hands above your head! Turn off the ignition! Do it now!""
Tessa let out a high-pitched, terrified shriek. ""Wait! No! You don't understand! This is a misunderstanding! I'm Tessa Campbell! My father—""
The call abruptly disconnected with the sound of a phone clattering against a car floorboard.
Elena let out a long, low whistle from the corner of the room. ""That was the most satisfying sound I have ever heard in twenty-two years of nursing.""
May you like
I sank back against the pillows, closing my eyes. The physical exhaustion of the day was catching up with me, but the suffocating knot that had lived in the pit of my stomach since childhood was gone. Tessa had lived her entire life believing that consequences were things that only happened to other people.
Now, she was going to learn what the real world looked like when there was no little sister to throw under the bus.
