Chapter 3 - Shadows of the Truth
The next morning, the sun broke through the storm clouds, casting long, golden rays through the windows of St. Jude’s Hospital.
I walked into the recovery room carrying a bouquet of fresh sunflowers and a warm breakfast spread I had picked up from a local cafe.
My mother was sitting up in bed, her color slowly returning. Beside her bed sat Jade, wearing a clean hospital gown with a neat white bandage covering the stitches above her eyebrow. She was holding my mother’s hand, patiently reading a book to her in a soft, soothing voice.
When I stepped into the room, Jade instantly stood up, lowering her head politely.
"Mr. Ryder," she said quietly, preparing to step away to give us privacy. "I will wait outside."
"Jade, wait," I said softly, setting the flowers on the nightstand. "Please... sit down."
I looked at Jade—really looked at her for the first time. She was small, but there was an unshakeable, quiet strength in her dark eyes. Despite the bruises on her arm and the bandage on her head, her primary concern was adjusting my mother’s blanket to keep her warm.
"Jade," I began, my voice thick with emotion. "I watched the footage from the house. All of it."
Jade looked down at her hands, her shoulders tensing slightly as if she expected to be blamed or fired. "I am sorry, sir. I tried to protect your mother, but I couldn't stop Mrs. Allison from—"
"Jade," I interrupted, dropping to one knee beside her chair. "You saved my mother's life. Do you understand that? If you hadn't been there... if you hadn't thrown yourself over her yesterday... my mother might not have survived that fall."
Tears welling in my mother's weak eyes, she reached out her thin, bruised hand and rested it on Jade’s knee. "She's an angel, Ryder," my mother whispered, her voice raspy. "That girl... she took beatings for me. Allison threatened to call immigration... threatened to have her locked up... but Jade stayed."
I looked at Jade, my chest tightening with immense respect and a sudden, deep guilt.
"Why didn't you leave, Jade?" I asked gently. "Why didn't you just walk away and protect yourself?"
Jade looked up, her dark eyes steady and clear. "My grandmother raised me in my village, Mr. Ryder. She taught me that elders are sacred. When I saw how Mrs. Allison treated your mother, I knew if I left, no one would be here to give her water, or her medicine, or love. I couldn't leave her alone in that darkness."
I pressed my eyes shut, taking a deep breath to steady myself. The contrast between my ex-wife—a woman born into wealth and privilege who possessed a hollow, sadistic soul—and Jade, a humble housemaid who possessed the heart of a lion, was staggering.
"You will never have to fear Allison again, Jade," I promised. "I have hired a top legal team. She is in jail, her bail has been denied due to the video evidence, and I am filing for an immediate annulment and divorce."
"What about my wages, sir?" Jade asked softly. "Mrs. Allison took my passport six weeks ago and locked it in her safe. She said I owed her money for breaking a dish."
My blood ran cold again. "She took your passport?"
"Yes, sir."
"We're going home right now," I said, standing up. "I know the combination to that safe."
Two hours later, I stood in my office, opening the heavy steel safe behind my desk. Inside, alongside Jade’s passport, I found something that made my stomach drop into a dark abyss.
It was a folder marked Financial Directives.
Inside were bank transfer logs showing that over the last four months, Allison had transferred over $300,000 from my corporate accounts into an offshore account registered in the Bahamas—co-owned by a man named Julian Vance, her ex-boyfriend from college.
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They hadn't just been abusing my mother.
They were planning to drain my entire life savings, declare my mother legally insane, throw her into a state asylum, and flee the country together the moment I sent my final contract payment from Saudi Arabia.
