Chapter 5 - The Underground Ward
“She was never supposed to wake up,” I said, answering the question hanging over the room.
Every face turned to me.
“When the firefighters pulled me from the rubble, I had third-degree burns across forty percent of my body. My lungs were scorched. I was comatose. But I wasn't dead.” I pointed to the thick hospital band still looped around my wrist, filthy and faded. “They transferred me under the name ‘Sarah Doe’ to a long-term care hospice in northern Pennsylvania. A hospice funded by Mercer grants.”
Marcus nodded, pulling out another document. “The doctors were told she was a brain-dead ward of the state. Instructions were left on file: Do Not Resuscitate. Withhold advanced life support. Keep her heavily sedated until organ failure occurred.”
A woman in the third row let out a strangled sob and covered her mouth.
“For fourteen months, I lay in that bed,” I said, looking straight into Juliette’s panicked eyes. “Trapped in my own mind. Hearing the nurses talk about the weather, about the holidays. Feeling the fire every time I closed my eyes. And then, one day, the sedative drip malfunctioned. I woke up.”
“Caroline...” Arthur wept, taking a step toward me, his arms reaching out. “My baby... my poor baby...”
“Don't touch me, Dad,” I said softly, stepping back.
He stopped, stricken.
“You signed the death certificate too,” I said, the pain sharper than any physical scar. “You didn't ask questions. You were so eager to bury the past and let Juliette take over the foundation that you didn’t even demand an open casket or an independent autopsy. You trusted her more than you loved me.”
Arthur collapsed onto one knee, sobbing into his hands right there on the altar.
May you like
Juliette saw her father break, and something snapped inside her. The frightened facade vanished, replaced by a sneer born of pure, cornered malice.
“And what if I did?” she hissed, her voice cutting through the sanctuary. “What were you ever good for, Caroline? You were weak! Mother gave you everything—the brains, the beauty, the foundation, the emeralds! I worked ten times harder, and Father still looked right through me to you! You didn’t deserve any of it!”
