Chapter 4: If Something Happens to Me
Chapter 4: If Something Happens to Me
The day before the hospital, Elena called an attorney.
She also recorded Victor threatening her in the hallway.
“You will not raise my granddaughter to take what belongs to me,” he said.
Elena saved the file.
Then she hid a copy in an email draft addressed to Daniel.
She never got to send it.
The next morning, Victor sent tea to her room through the housekeeper.
Elena drank half a cup.
Within minutes, her body turned heavy.
Her mouth would not work.
Her legs would not hold her.
But she was not unconscious.
Not completely.
She heard Victor enter the room.
He stood over her and said, “You should have signed.”
She tried to scream.
No sound came.
Then came sirens.
A blur of movement.
Paramedics.
Hospital lights.
Voices.
Needles.
A doctor saying her vitals were almost gone.
Another voice saying, “The family has requested private handling.”
Then darkness folded over everything.
Now, in the funeral home, Elena was alive.
Barely.
But alive.
The doctor shouted orders.
“Get her out of the casket. Now.”
Daniel stepped back only enough for the paramedics to work.
A paramedic checked her pulse.
“She’s bradycardic, but she has one.”
The doctor looked at the funeral director.
“Was she embalmed?”
The funeral director shook his head violently.
“No. The husband requested no embalming because of the pregnancy. Immediate service only.”
Daniel turned to Victor.
“My father requested the immediate service.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Because you couldn’t function.”
Elena grabbed Daniel’s sleeve with weak fingers.
“Phone,” she whispered.
Daniel leaned closer.
“What?”
“My phone,” she breathed. “Draft… email…”
Victor moved toward the door.
The female mourner shouted, “He’s leaving!”
Two men blocked the aisle.
The paramedics lifted Elena onto a stretcher as carefully as they could.
Daniel walked beside her, holding her hand.
“Where is her phone?” he demanded.
Victor said nothing.
But his eyes flicked toward his coat pocket.
Daniel saw it.
So did the doctor.
So did the police officer who had arrived with the ambulance crew.
“Sir,” the officer said to Victor, “take your hand out of your pocket.”
Victor’s face tightened.
“I am grieving my daughter-in-law.”
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“She’s breathing,” Daniel said. “Don’t you dare call her dead again.”
👉 Victor tried to leave with the one thing Elena needed most — the phone that held the truth.
