Chapter 9 - Banishing the Toxicity Forever
Pamela looked older, her usually immaculate hair slightly out of place, while Walter stood behind her with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, staring uncomfortably at the linoleum floor. Veronica lagged behind them, her eyes red and swollen, holding a crumpled tissue in her trembling hand.
When Veronica spotted my wheelchair beside Incubator Bay 4 and saw the tiny infant sleeping inside, her knees seemed to buckle slightly.
"Maya..." Veronica choked out, her voice cracking as she took a tentative step forward. "Oh god, Maya... I am so, so sorry."
Dererick stood up slowly from his chair, placing himself physically between his family and my hospital bed with a cold, terrifying fury in his eyes that I had never seen in him before.
"Get out," Dererick said, his voice dangerously low and steady.
"Dererick, please, we just wanted to see..." Pamela started, her voice breaking as she reached out a pleading hand toward her son. "We didn't mean for this to happen. We didn't know she was going to fall like that! It was just a stupid argument—"
"A stupid argument?" Dererick exploded, the quiet anger finally shattering into a roar that echoed off the NICU walls, causing a nearby nurse to look up sharply from her station. "You nearly killed my wife! You nearly killed my daughter! Veronica threw a table at an eight-month-pregnant woman because of her own bitter jealousy, and you stood there and cheered her on!"
"Dererick, we're your family," Walter muttered, trying to maintain a shred of his old authority. "Don't overreact over an accident."
"An accident?" I spoke up for the first time, my voice raspy but sharp as a razor blade as I turned my wheelchair to face them.
The three of them flinched at the sound of my voice.
"You called me a fraud," I said, looking directly into Veronica’s tear-filled eyes. "You mocked my body, you humiliated me in front of dozens of people, and when I couldn't stand anymore, you tried to physically destroy me because you couldn't handle the fact that I was carrying a child."
Veronica burst into loud, jagged sobs, sinking against the hallway wall and sliding down until she was sitting on the floor with her face buried in her hands.
"I was jealous," she sobbed hysterically. "Every doctor told me I was broken... and when I saw you glowing, carrying a healthy baby... something inside me just snapped. I didn't want to hurt the baby, Maya! I swear to God I didn't mean to hurt the baby!"
"Your intentions don't matter anymore, Veronica," Dererick said coldly, stepping closer to block her view of the incubator. "Because as of tonight, you are out of our lives. All of you. You will never hold this child. You will never step foot in our home. If any of you ever try to contact my wife, my daughter, or me again, I will slap you with a restraining order so fast your heads will spin, and I will personally hand the police the security footage from Craig's estate."
Pamela gasped, her face turning chalk white. "Dererick, you can't cut us off! We're your blood!"
"Blood doesn't give you the right to try to murder my family," Dererick replied without a single flicker of hesitation. "Now get out of this hospital before I call security and have you thrown out in handcuffs."
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Walter stared at his son for a long, heavy moment, realizing with chilling clarity that they had crossed a line that could never, ever be uncrossed. Without another word, Walter grabbed Pamela’s arm and yanked her backward toward the exit, while Veronica scrambled up from the floor and stumbled blindly after them through the double doors.
The heavy doors swung shut, sealing out the toxicity, the cruelty, and the past forever.
