Chapter 4

4: 4

4.

My in-laws hadn't expected me to double back.

They froze for a second, then dredged up a fake smile.

"Mattie, you're talking nonsense again. Sebastian's been gone three months now. How could he possibly still be alive?"

"We know you're hurting inside, sweetheart, but you can't keep refusing to move on..."

I looked at the two of them and their polished little act, and felt nothing but cold.

I pulled out the photos I'd taken and asked right there.

"Then how did I see him this morning, eating breakfast with a woman right outside the gate of Sunnyvale Gardens?"

Their faces changed in an instant.

My mother-in-law recovered first.

She slapped her thigh and wailed at the top of her lungs.

"What did I ever do to deserve this! My son's barely dead and now my daughter-in-law's lost her mind!"

"Running around all day with some AI-faked photo claiming my son isn't dead, and the second anyone tries to talk sense into her, she flies off and starts hitting people."

"You all should get out of here, before she takes a swing at you."

Every face in the ward changed.

My mother-in-law seized the moment and shot my father-in-law a look.

But I snatched the phone right out of his hand.

And held up for everyone to see the eight words he'd just sent: "Situation's changed. Move the plan up."

"I'm not mentally ill, and my husband Sebastian isn't dead."

"This is all a trap their whole family set, so they can swallow up my assets and let them and his mistress live it up!"

The people in the ward saw the words on the phone.

The way they looked at my in-laws changed completely.

My father-in-law panicked too, and scrambled to cover.

"What I meant was, my daughter-in-law's having an episode, so the doctor should hurry and come take her away."

"Otherwise, once her madness really kicks in, there's no telling how many crazy things she'll do!"

They even came over and grabbed at me, trying to drag me off to see a doctor.

We were still locked in the struggle when my son walked in.

He shoved me hard to the floor, shielding my in-laws as he spoke.

"Mom! If you want to hit someone, hit me. Grandma and Grandpa are old, they can't take you tormenting them like this!"

"I already don't have a dad. Do you want me to lose my grandparents too?"

Nothing pulls at sympathy like a child's tender little voice.

And with the rows of injuries showing under his deliberately rolled-up sleeve, the whole room turned on me in a heartbeat.

Someone reached out and shoved me.

"Are you even human? Beating a child like this."

"Even if you can't accept losing your husband, you don't get to take it out on a kid."

"You've tormented two elderly people into the hospital. Why can't you just accept treatment and get better?"

I still wanted to argue, but the psychiatric hospital doctor my son had called was already coming into the ward.

Just as they had hold of me, about to force me into the car, the police arrived.

"Who called this in?"

My son stepped forward first, raising his hand.

"I did."

"Officer, my mom's had a breakdown, she's lost her mind."

"She's abused me for a long time, sent me off to boarding school, and now she's beaten my grandparents into the hospital too."

"Our family had no other choice. That's why we decided to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital."

"This is the evidence of her domestic abuse against me, along with the certification from the psychiatric hospital."

My son handed the evidence over to the police.

The officer took it, and his brow furrowed deeper and deeper.

Just as he raised his hand to have the psychiatric hospital doctor take me away, I pulled out another set of evidence and held it out.

"Wait. The one who's really sick isn't me. It's my son and my in-laws!"