Chapter 3 - Uncovering the Rot
The hospital emergency room was bright, loud, and smelled heavily of bleach.
Olivia lay on the examination table while doctors frantically checked the baby's heartbeat.
The steady, rapid thumping on the ultrasound monitor was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard.
"The baby is perfectly healthy, despite the physical trauma you endured," the doctor assured her gently.
Margaret stood by the window, her phone pressed tightly to her ear.
She had just finished calling the commanding general of Ethan's military base.
The Army was already moving to freeze his pay, strip his clearance, and prepare a court-martial.
But Margaret wasn't finished digging into the darkness.
She called in a favor from a forensic accountant at the Pentagon.
Within hours, the horrific extent of Ethan and Diane's financial crimes was laid bare.
Diane was completely bankrupt, having gambled away her own savings two years ago.
Ethan had been secretly forging Olivia’s signature to siphon money from her late mother’s trust fund to pay his mother's massive debts.
When the trust began to run dry, they needed a bigger payout.
That was when Diane had suggested the life insurance policy modification.
"They traded your life for their luxury," Margaret told Olivia softly, holding her hand.
Olivia looked down at her swollen belly, feeling a fierce, protective maternal rage replace her fear.
"I want every single dime back," Olivia said firmly.
"And I want them to rot in a concrete cell."
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Margaret smiled, a dangerous, predatory grin.
"Let's go to war, sweetheart," she replied.
