Chapter 8
My words hit the hallway like a boulder dropped into a stagnant pond, instantly triggering a massive shockwave of outrage.
"You evil, toxic bitch!"
Mary exploded first. She lunged at me like a rabid animal, her sharp nails clawing straight for my face.
"I am going to rip your face off! Let's see you talk that kind of trash when you don't have a mouth!" she screamed.
I was fully prepared for her unhinged reaction. I easily sidestepped her.
She completely missed her target, her momentum sending her crashing forward until she nearly face-planted onto the floor.
Sophia scrambled forward to catch her mother, immediately turning her fury onto me. "Emma! How the hell could you say something so evil? He is my brother!
"Even if he made a mistake, you can't just let him die!"
"Exactly, Emma," John, who had been completely useless this entire time, finally decided to speak up. His tone was heavy, dripping with aggressive disappointment and patriarchal authority. "You are husband and wife. Do you really need to be this incredibly ruthless?
"This is a matter of life and death. Now is not the time for you to throw a petty, emotional tantrum."
I stared at the three of them—a perfectly united front of absolute delusion—and found the entire spectacle highly amusing.
Ruthless?
Who exactly was being ruthless here?
Was it the man who secretly wired his entire family's life savings, the money meant to feed and house his own son, directly to his ex-girlfriend?
Or was it the family members standing in front of me, who knew he was committing financial fraud, actively helped him hide his affair, and was now aggressively demanding I sell my dead parents' home to bail him out?
"A petty tantrum?" I argued and locked eyes with John. "If I were the one bleeding out in that ICU right now and David had wired my life-saving surgery funds to another woman, would you actively force him to sell your house to save me?"
John's jaw snapped shut. He was completely, utterly speechless.
The answer was overwhelmingly obvious.
Of course he would not.
In their eyes, I was, and always would be, a completely disposable outsider. I was a convenient pawn they could sacrifice whenever they needed cash.
"Stop wasting your breath on her!" Mary ripped herself out of Sophia's grip, pointing a shaking finger at my face as she yelled at the nurse. "Nurse, you need to document this! She is actively refusing to save my son!
"She wants him to die so she can monopolize our entire family's estate!"
The nurse, completely overwhelmed by the psychotic family drama, looked at me with deep, pleading desperation.
"Ma'am, please, the patient's vitals are crashing. You have to make a definitive decision right now," the nurse urged.
"We're not making any decisions. Let him die!"
Before I could even respond to the nurse, a crisp, highly arrogant voice echoed from down the hall.
I turned my head. It was Jessica.
She stood with her arms crossed over her designer jacket, a deeply victorious smirk playing on her lips.
"Emma, you better think incredibly carefully about what you are doing.
"If David dies on that table tonight, you will be held publicly and legally responsible for medical negligence.
"And more importantly? Don't even dream about inheriting his assets or keeping that house you bought while you were married. You won't see a single dime.
"According to inheritance law, the estate is split between the spouse, the child, and the parents.
"By the time that estate is liquidated, you'll be forced to split it with Mary and John. And since David technically 'owes' me money, I have full legal standing to place a lien on his estate as a primary creditor."
She looked incredibly satisfied with herself, acting as if she had already checkmated me into absolute bankruptcy.
Her malicious little speech caused a massive lightbulb to go off in Mary's and Sophia's heads.
They believed if David died, I would get screwed too!
The house was purchased after we were legally married. Even though my parents paid the entire down payment, the deed was registered as a joint marital asset.
If it went to probate, I would only be legally entitled to a fraction of the equity, if anything at all.
"Did you hear her?" Mary yelled and suddenly puffed her chest out, her confidence entirely restored by Jessica's legal threat. "If you refuse to save my son, my family will not give you a single penny!
"We will legally evict you, and you and that useless brat of yours will be out on the street with absolutely nothing!"
I stared at their incredibly greedy faces, my heart turning to absolute ice.
Did they seriously think a baseless legal threat from a mistress was going to intimidate me?
They vastly underestimated who I was.
And they vastly underestimated my understanding of corporate and family law.
"Is that right?" I looked directly at Jessica, arguing calmly. "First of all, the unilateral transfer of marital assets to a third party without spousal consent is classified as financial fraud.
"That three hundred thousand dollars was a joint marital asset. David possessed zero legal authority to 'gift' it to you.
"I have already retained counsel, and I will be filing a massive civil lawsuit to force you to return the funds in full, with compounding interest."
I slowly pivoted to face Mary and continued, "Secondly, if David dies tonight because he cannot afford the surgery, the direct, legally provable cause of his death will be the fraudulent wire transfer that drained his medical safety net.
"Which means you, Jessica, as the sole beneficiary of those stolen funds, will likely be subjected to a massive criminal investigation for involuntary manslaughter and felony embezzlement.
"I cannot wait to see you in court."
"As for his estate," I smiled, looking at their pale faces. "David committed gross marital misconduct and severe financial infidelity.
"During probate, as the completely faultless party, I have full legal standing to petition the court for the overwhelming majority of the remaining marital assets.
"Furthermore, David suffered his catastrophic heart attack less than twenty-four hours after executing that massive wire transfer to you.
"The intense causal link between his financial panic and his cardiac arrest is an angle my lawyers are going to absolutely love dissecting in front of a judge.
"So, tell me how exactly do you think a judge is going to rule?"