I woke up from the coma and heard my son whisper, “Don’t open your eyes”… my husband and my own sister were waiting for me to d!e so they could take everything.
“Mom… Dad is waiting for you to d.i.e. Please don’t wake up.”
That was the first thing I heard after twelve days trapped in a suffocating darkness that felt like I was buried deep underground.
I could not move a single muscle in my body, and I could not speak a word to anyone who entered the room.
Even the simple act of breathing felt like jagged shards of glass were splitting my head into pieces, yet I recognized that young voice instantly.
“Leo, sweetheart, is that you?” I thought to myself as my nine-year-old son stood beside my hospital bed, crying quietly while holding my hand the same way he used to when he was terrified of summer fireworks.
“Mom, if you can hear me, please squeeze my hand right now,” he whispered while tears streamed down his face.
I tried with every ounce of strength I had left in my broken body.
I truly tried to give him a sign, but my fingers remained frozen and unresponsive against the cold hospital sheets.
A nurse entered the room shortly after, briskly talking about my IV fluids, my blood pressure levels, and how it was a total miracle that I was still breathing.
She mentioned that my SUV had gone off the road near a jagged mountain curve at Blue Ridge Pass.
Everyone who visited kept repeating the same tired line about how poor Isabella had simply lost control of her vehicle.
But I knew deep in my heart that I never lost control of that car.
The last thing I remembered was my husband, Thomas, sitting at our kitchen table and sliding legal papers toward me with a cold, hungry look in his eyes.
“Just sign these documents, Isabella, because it is only to protect our shared family assets,” he had urged me.
I refused him point blank, and that same night, my brakes failed completely as I drove home.
The heavy hospital door opened again, and my son quickly let go of my hand as if he were afraid of being caught.
“You are here again?” Thomas snapped at the boy with a tone of pure disgust. “I already told you that she cannot hear a single word you are saying.”
“I just wanted to see my mother,” the boy replied softly while backing away.
“Go and sit with your Aunt Josephine in the hallway,” Thomas commanded.
Josephine was my sister, the one who used to braid my hair when we were little girls playing in the backyard.
She was the same woman who had cried loudly in the hospital waiting room earlier that day, telling everyone she would gladly give her life to save mine.
Her sharp heels clicked rhythmically across the floor as she walked into the room to join Thomas.
“Let him say his goodbyes before we do what needs to be done,” she said while checking her watch. “The notary will be here very soon to finalize everything.”
“The lead doctor already said it is hopeless,” Thomas replied with a cold shrug of his shoulders. “I am not paying a fortune to keep an empty shell alive any longer.”
An empty shell, he called me, and hearing that made a wave of pure, white-hot rage surge through my locked body.
“My mom is definitely coming back to us!” my son cried out, his voice shaking with desperation.
Thomas laughed softly, a hollow sound that chilled me to the bone. “No, she is not coming back, and you need to accept that reality right now.”
Josephine leaned in close to my face, adjusting my hair with fingers that felt like icy needles against my skin.
“Even when she is unconscious, she still loves playing the victim to get attention from everyone,” she whispered into my ear.
Then her voice dropped even lower as she looked toward the door to make sure we were alone.
“When she finally dies, we will take the boy out of the country to that private estate in the countryside,” she murmured.
“Everything is already arranged to keep us safe,” Thomas added with a satisfied smirk.
My son stepped back, his eyes widening in horror at the sound of their plans. “You are taking me away from my home?”
“We are taking you somewhere where you will not ask so many stupid questions,” Thomas said firmly.
“I want my mom to wake up!” the boy shouted, his voice cracking.
“She does not get to decide anything anymore, so get used to it,” Thomas sneered.
“Yes, she does decide things, because she told me if anything ever happened to her, I should call Ms. Gable immediately!”
Silence suddenly filled the room, heavy and thick.
Ms. Gable was my lawyer, and she was the only person who knew I had secretly changed my will two weeks before the accident.
Thomas slammed the door shut and locked it, his eyes narrowing. “What lawyer are you talking about, kid?”
Josephine stiffened, her face losing all its color. “That boy knows far too much for his own good.”
And then, it happened.
