Chapter 5 - EVICTION NOTICE FOR A PARASITE
Ten minutes after the police cruisers pulled away from the curb with Daniel locked securely in the back, the heavy silence of the master bedroom was broken only by Margaret’s pathetic, ragged sniffling from the corner of the floor.
I walked back into the room, stepping over a discarded silk bathrobe strap, and stood directly over where she was curled into a miserable, shaking ball against the baseboard.
“Get up, Margaret,” I said, my voice carrying the weight of an unmovable mountain.
Margaret slowly lifted her tear-streaked, wrinkled face, glaring up at me with eyes burning with pure, unadulterated venom.
“You monster,” Margaret spat out, her voice cracking with malice.
“How can you do this to your own family? How can you throw your husband in jail and leave an elderly woman out on the street with nowhere to go?”
A cold, humorless smile touched the corners of my lips.
“Family?” I asked, leaning down slightly so she had to look directly into my bruised, swollen face.
“Let’s establish some very clear boundaries right this second, Margaret.”
“You are not my family.”
“You are an eleven-month parasite who invited herself into my home, ate my food, opened my mail, and helped your golden-boy son mentally and physically abuse the woman who paid your bills.”
Margaret scrambled backward until her spine hit the bedroom wall, her breath catching in her throat.
“You can’t throw me out!” she shrieked hysterically.
“I have rights! I’m a resident here! You have to give me thirty days formal notice through an attorney!”
I reached into the pocket of my cotton robe, pulled out a thick legal document bearing the official seal of the county court, and dropped it right into her lap.
“That,” I said calmly, “is an emergency protective order and a summary eviction notice granted by Judge Holloway less than twenty minutes ago.”
“Because this property is owned exclusively in my pre-marital name, and because your presence here is tied directly to an ongoing federal criminal investigation involving domestic abuse and financial embezzlement…”
“You have exactly two hours to pack your belongings into a plastic trash bag and vacate the premises.”
Margaret stared down at the legal document in her lap, her mouth opening and closing like a stranded fish as the terrifying reality of her utter helplessness washed over her.
“Two hours?” she whispered in absolute horror.
“Where am I supposed to go? My brother Robert is useless! I don’t have any money!”
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“That,” I replied, turning my back on her and walking toward the bedroom door with slow, deliberate grace, “sounds like a personal problem, Margaret.”
“Try not to leave a mess in the guest bedroom when you leave.”
