Chapter 4 - The Hidden Envelope
I rushed into Maya’s recovery room.
She looked small in the hospital bed, surrounded by monitors and IV drips, but the gray, sickly tint was gone from her skin, replaced by a warm, natural flush.
"Mom," she whispered, her eyes fluttering open as I took her small hand.
"I'm right here, baby," I stroked her hair. "The doctor took the mean mass out. You're going to be okay. The pain is going to go away."
Maya squeezed my hand weakly. "Mom... before you brought me here... when Daddy was at work yesterday, I went into his home office to look for an extra notebook for school."
"Okay... what did you find, sweetheart?"
"In the bottom drawer... behind his taxes... there was a big brown envelope from an insurance company," Maya whimpered, tears filling her eyes. "I opened it because it had my name on it. Mom... Daddy took out a private child disability and life insurance policy on me six months ago."
I froze. My blood ran colder than ice. "What did you say?"
"He... he had a policy that pays out $250,000 if I get hospitalized with a terminal illness or die," Maya whispered, a tear running down her cheek. "When I told him my stomach hurt last month... he told me not to tell you. He said if I went to a hospital, the policy wouldn't cover it properly."
Sarah, who was standing right behind me near the door, gasped loudly.
The room felt as though all the oxygen had been sucked out. It wasn't just stinginess. It wasn't just cold financial caution. Robert wasn't just ignoring Maya’s pain out of neglect—he was actively hoping her condition would worsen so he could collect a massive insurance payout.
My hands trembled so hard I had to grip the bed rail to stay upright.
May you like
"Sarah," I whispered, my voice shaking with white-hot rage. "Is that... is that attempted murder?"
"It’s reckless endangerment, insurance fraud, and criminal child neglect," Sarah said, her voice dropping into a lethal, quiet fury. "And I am calling the District Attorney’s office right now."
