Chapter 6 - The Whispered ThreatFor a fraction of a second, a flash of genuine venom crossed Linda’s face. She looked down at Noah, then up at me with eyes so devoid of warmth they might as well have belonged to a stranger. Slowly, deliberately, she stepped forward and handed the wailing infant to the female paramedic, who immediately whisked the baby over to a portable bassinet for a rapid medical assessment.
"You're making a terrible mistake, Ethan," Linda spat, holding her wrists out dramatically as Sergeant Ramirez snapped a pair of cold steel handcuffs around them. "I came here out of the goodness of my heart to save your crumbling marriage, and this is how you repay me? Arresting your own mother?"
"You didn't come here to help, Linda," I said, standing up slowly from Megan’s side, towering over my mother for the first time in my adult life. My voice was completely flat, drained of every drop of familial affection. "I watched the whole thing on the security camera. Every single second of it. You watched my wife crawl across the floor in agony. You deliberately provoked a hemorrhage. And then you whispered something terrifying into her ear before the paramedics arrived."
Linda’s eyes flickered—a microscopic tell of pure panic that she masked instantly behind a smirk. "I have no idea what you're babbling about."
"Take her out of my house," I told Sergeant Ramirez, turning my back on her. "And make sure she spends tonight in a holding cell."
As the officers escorted Linda down the hallway, her voice echoed down the stairs: "You’ll regret this, Ethan! You don't know what you're dealing with!"
I didn't answer. My entire focus shifted back to the floor, where paramedics were lifting Megan onto a stretcher to transport her urgently back to Swedish Medical Center. As they wheeled her past me, Megan’s fingers weakly gripped my sleeve.
"Ethan..." she breathed, tears spilling over her lashes. "She... she told me something."
"Shh, save your strength, honey," I urged, kissing her knuckles. "You're going to be okay. The doctors are taking you back to the hospital."
"No, Ethan, you need to listen," Megan insisted, her voice tight with terror. "When she whispered to me... she didn't just threaten me."
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"What did she say, Megan?"
Megan swallowed hard, her eyes wide with a horrifying realization. "She said... 'Enjoy your last day with your son, because by morning, the courts will give him to me. I already own your house, and soon, I'll own your child.'"
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