Chapter 2 - The Facade Cracks
The wait was an agonizing descent into a private hell. Caleb sat on the hard vinyl chairs, his face buried in his hands. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the accusation that had briefly flared in his mind when he first saw that jacket. He had doubted her. Even for a fraction of a second, he had allowed his mother’s poison to seep into his mind.
“She’s too emotional, Caleb. She’s using this pregnancy to control you.”
How many times had he let Lorraine say those things? How many times had he smiled, kissed Hannah’s forehead, and told her to "just ignore her, she means well"?
The sound of clicking heels echoed down the hallway, breaking his train of thought.
Caleb looked up. Walking toward him, looking as immaculate and untouched as if she had just stepped out of a Charleston country club, was Lorraine Rowan. She wore a tailored cream coat, her silver hair perfectly coiffed, a look of manufactured concern plastered across her face.
"Caleb, darling!" she cried, rushing forward and reaching out to grasp his shoulders. "Oh, thank goodness you're here! I came as soon as I heard! The hospital called me because I'm listed as your emergency contact on the construction accounts."
Caleb didn't move. He didn't embrace her. He slowly stood up, stepping out of her reach. The sheer, unadulterated coldness in his eyes made Lorraine pause, her hands hovering in the air.
"Caleb? What is it, sweetheart? You look terrible. Have they... has the doctor told you about Hannah?" She lowered her voice, casting a performative glance around the empty corridor. "I told you, darling. I tried to warn you. When I went by the house to check on her, there was another man there. A doctor, she claimed, but why would a doctor be in her bedroom? I saw them, Caleb. She was so desperate to hide her behavior that she started screaming and faking this whole medical emergency."
"Stop," Caleb said.
The word was quiet, but it carried a terrifying, jagged edge that made the color drain from Lorraine's face.
"Caleb, I am your mother! I am only trying to protect you from—"
"I said, stop," Caleb roared.
Several nurses at the nearby station looked up, but Caleb didn't care. He stepped directly into his mother’s space, towering over her. The scent of her expensive lavender perfume made him sick to his stomach.
"I spoke to Dr. Morgan, Mother," Caleb said, his voice shaking with a rage so intense it felt like fire in his veins. "I know about the emergency page. I know you blocked him at the door. I know you took his bag, locked the door, and lied to him. And I have Hannah’s phone."
He pulled out the phone in the evidence pouch, holding it inches from Lorraine’s eyes.
"I saw the photo you sent me. You set this up. You saw my wife bleeding, you saw her unable to stand, and you decided to use her dying moments to frame her for cheating so I would leave her. You delayed her medical care. You tried to kill my family."
Lorraine’s eyes darted left and right, her hands twitching. The mask of the loving, protective mother was slipping, revealing the ugly, calculating narcissism beneath.
"Caleb, you are being ridiculous!" she hissed, her voice dropping its sweet tone and becoming sharp and defensive. "That woman has had you wrapped around her finger since the day you met! She is weak! She was always going to lose that baby because she doesn't have the stamina for it! I was doing you a favor, Caleb! If she lost it, you could finally be free of her and find someone worthy of the Rowan name!"
Caleb felt a physical nausea hit him. He looked at the woman who had raised him, realizing with absolute clarity that she was not human. She was a hollow, venomous shell.
"Get out," Caleb whispered.
"Caleb—"
"If you are not out of this hospital in ten seconds, I will call the security guards and have you dragged out in handcuffs," Caleb said, his voice dead and absolute. "And then I am going to the police. I will personally see to it that you are charged with reckless endangerment, criminal neglect, and whatever else the state of South Carolina can throw at you. You are no longer my mother. You are nothing to me."
Lorraine stared at him, her lips curling into a sneer of pure hatred. "You will regret this, Caleb. Without my money and my connections, your construction business is nothing. I will ruin you."
"I would rather starve in the street with my wife than spend another second breathing the same air as you," Caleb said. "Now, get out of my sight."
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Seeing that her power over him was completely shattered, Lorraine turned on her heel and marched down the hallway, her heels clicking aggressively against the tile until she vanished into the elevator.
Caleb collapsed back into the chair, his strength completely spent. He closed his eyes and prayed—prayed to a God he hadn't spoken to in years—to save the only two people who mattered in his world.
