Chapter 4 - The Confrontation
"Emily?" Daniel looked startled to see me. He was wearing his tailored charcoal suit, looking perfectly groomed, completely unaffected by the fact that he had nearly killed our child hours ago.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, his eyes darting toward the hallway where his study was located. "I thought you'd be hovering at the hospital."
"I came to get some clean clothes," I lied, keeping my voice intentionally flat, playing the role of the exhausted, defeated wife. "Lily stabilized. Barely."
Daniel sighed, tossing his keys onto the console table. "See? I told you not to be dramatic. The doctors handled it. You always blow things out of proportion, Em. It's exhausting."
I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted copper. "She flatlined, Daniel. She was dead for two minutes."
He waved a dismissive hand. "But she's fine now. Look, I told you I'd fix the medication issue next week. Vanessa just really needed this batch."
"For her cellular regeneration treatments?" I asked softly.
Daniel froze. The color drained from his perfectly tanned face. "What did you say?"
"I know, Daniel," I said, stepping closer to him, the anger finally bleeding into my voice. "I know Vanessa isn't sick. I know about the black-market clinic. I know you've been stealing from St. Matthew's for over a year."
His shock only lasted a second before his face morphed into a sneer of pure malice. The mask was completely off. "You've been snooping in my office. You crazy, paranoid bitch."
He lunged toward me, but I stepped back, holding up my phone. The screen displayed a running timer.
"I'm streaming this conversation to a secure cloud server, and my lawyer is already listening," I bluffed, my voice shaking with adrenaline.
Daniel stopped in his tracks, his fists clenched. "You think you can take me down? I'm a senior executive at that hospital. I control our finances, Emily. I control Lily's health insurance. You make one move against me, you say one word to the board, and I will pull her coverage so fast she'll be out on the street before you can blink. You'll have nothing."
"You already took everything that mattered," I spat. "You tried to take my daughter."
"She's a sick kid, Emily! She's a bottomless pit of medical bills!" he shouted, finally revealing the monster he truly was. "Vanessa and I are building an empire. We are making millions. Do you honestly think anyone is going to care about one missing box of drugs when I bring so much revenue to the hospital network? You're a stay-at-home mom. You are nothing without me."
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I looked at him, feeling a strange, absolute calm wash over me. He had just confessed to everything, completely blinded by his own narcissism.
"We'll see about that," I whispered. I turned on my heel, walked out the front door, and got into my car. As I drove away, I looked in the rearview mirror and saw Daniel running out of the house, screaming at me. I patted the heavy tote bag on the passenger seat. I didn't just have a bluff. I had his ledger. I had his files. And I was going to burn his empire to the ground.
