Chapter 10 - Severing the Roots
Under court order, I returned to the Mercer house two days later accompanied by two sheriff's deputies and a professional moving crew. Mark had been ordered to vacate the premises for four hours while I retrieved my belongings.
The suburban house smelled stale, shuttered, and dead. Entering the master bathroom sent a sudden tremor through my limbs, but I forced myself to walk inside.
The mirror frame was still cracked. A dark brown stain remained on the bottom corner of the brass moulding where my skin had parted.
"Ma'am, do you want us to pack these?" a mover asked, pointing to the nurseries full of untouched furniture.
"Everything that was bought with my money," I said evenly. "Leave the rest."
While packing the office, one of the deputies called out to me. "Ms. Vance, you might want to look at this."
He pulled open a locked metal drawer in the guest bedroom that Evelyn had occupied. Inside was a fireproof box containing personal folders. Among them was an envelope marked with my name.
Inside was a life insurance policy taken out four months prior through an online broker, listing Mark as the primary beneficiary and Evelyn as the secondary. It was an accidental death policy worth seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, specifically riders covering maternal complications. Attached to it were printouts of my private medical records regarding my preeclampsia warnings, which Mark had photographed from my nightstand.
A cold chill ran down my spine, quickly replaced by white-hot fury.
They hadn't just been indifferent to my pain; they had been waiting for it. They had gambled on my silence and my compliance, hoping that my body would break under the strain before the ambulance ever arrived.
"Bag that as evidence," I told the deputy, handing the folder over. "Give it directly to Detective Miller. Add insurance fraud and attempted reckless endangerment to their charges."
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As the movers loaded the final truck, I walked out the front door for the last time. I didn't look back at the manicured lawn, the brick facade, or the gilded cage where I had nearly lost my life.
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