Chapter 9 - Kayla’s Tears
A week before Leo was set to be released from the hospital,
Kayla Highland arrived at the ward.
She wasn't the glowing bride I had seen spinning on the dance floor.
She was wearing a plain tracksuit,
her hair was unwashed,
and her face was pale and puffy from crying.
She looked like the very thing she used to mock:
unimportant.
"They're taking the house,
Laura,"
she sobbed,
sitting on a bench in the hospital hallway.
"My car,
my jewelry...
even my wedding gifts."
"I have nowhere to go."
I looked at her,
remembering the way she had joked that I "counted grapes for a living."
"The law doesn't care about your wedding gifts,
Kayla,"
I said,
my voice devoid of anger.
"They were bought with stolen money."
"You lived a life of luxury while people were being cheated out of their livelihoods."
"I didn't know!"
she shrieked,
drawing stares from the passing nurses.
"I just thought we were rich!"
"You knew Regina was hiding something,"
I countered.
"You heard the whispers at the table."
"You saw the way she treated people who didn't have money."
"And you laughed when Derrick told me to 'just ten minutes' in that bathroom."
Kayla looked away,
her hands trembling in her lap.
"I'm sorry,"
she whispered.
"Please...
talk to the prosecutors."
"Tell them I didn't know."
"Tell them to let me keep enough for an apartment."
I stood up,
straightening my jacket.
"I don't work for the defense,
Kayla."
"I work for the state."
"My job is to find the truth,
not to hide it for my 'family'."
"You should have thought about your future before you let Regina run your life."
I walked past her,
the sound of her sobbing fading as I entered the NICU.
I picked up Leo,
who was finally free of the wires and tubes.
He was breathing on his own now,
a tiny,
strong miracle in my arms.
He didn't need a vineyard.
He didn't need a name like Highland.
He just needed a mother who wouldn't stop until justice was served.
As I walked toward the exit,
I passed a television in the waiting area.
The news was showing footage of Highland Ridge being boarded up,
the vines turning brown from neglect.
May you like
The empire was dead.
And the new life was just beginning.
