Chapter 4 - I CAN’T BREATHEAn ambulance was called with the police.
Nathan remained beside me.
He did not attempt to make me stand.
He remembered what my doctors had taught him years earlier.
Keep me upright.
Keep me calm.
Find the inhaler.
Grace searched the floor again.
The guest who recorded the push replayed her video.
“My bag is in her hand,” I managed to whisper.
Nathan watched the screen.
The footage showed Madeline grabbing my arm.
As she pulled me toward the entrance, she removed the handbag from my shoulder.
She passed it behind her back.
Then placed it on a side table.
A second clip showed her taking it from the table while everyone looked at me on the floor.
She carried it toward her office.
Nathan stood.
“Where is the bag?”
Madeline folded her arms.
“I don’t know.”
“The video shows you taking it.”
“I was protecting family property.”
“It belongs to my wife.”
“It contains stolen documents.”
“Where is it?”
Madeline said nothing.
Nathan took one step toward her.
His anger frightened me.
Not because I believed he would hurt her.
Because uncontrolled anger could turn evidence into another family argument.
I reached for him.
“Police.”
He looked at me.
I shook my head.
“Let them.”
He understood.
He returned to my side.
A guest found a small emergency inhaler inside her own purse.
It was not prescribed to me.
Grace refused to give it without medical instruction.
Correctly.
A dispatcher guided us until paramedics arrived.
They provided emergency treatment.
Air gradually returned.
The first deep breath hurt.
It also felt like life.
Nathan held my hand.
I had spent eight months imagining this reunion.
In some versions, he apologized.
In others, I refused to see him.
None began with me on a marble floor struggling to breathe.
The paramedic asked whether I had lost consciousness.
“No.”
“Any head impact?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Hip pain?”
“Yes.”
They prepared a stretcher.
Madeline watched from across the room.
Her arrogance had disappeared.
Police entered through the open doors.
An officer separated witnesses.
Another approached Madeline.
She pointed at the envelope now visible through my handbag’s open clasp.
“She came here to steal from us again.”
Nathan looked at his sister.
“Sophia arrived carrying her own bag.”
“You don’t know what she has.”
“I know what you did to her.”
Madeline’s eyes filled with tears.
“I was protecting Mom’s estate.”
“Our mother is dead.”
“Exactly. Someone has to protect what she left.”
Nathan looked at me.
Then at Grace.
“Where is Sophia’s bag?”
Grace answered quietly.
“I believe it is in Miss Carter’s office.”
Madeline’s face became white.
May you like
The office door was locked.
Only she had the key.
Related Stories
