Chapter 4: The Financial Cutoff
The air in the ICU grew dangerously still. The only sound was the rhythmic beeping of my heart monitor, which had surprisingly begun to steady as the legal paperwork finalized my emotional detachment from them.
My mother stared at Naomi, her manicured hands gripping her Birkin bag so tightly her knuckles turned white. “What do you mean, ‘that’s not all’? Sarah, what is this woman talking about? Stop playing these dramatic games and tell her to leave. We need to discuss the deposit for Lily’s car.”
“The second document,” Naomi announced, holding the paper up. Her voice echoed with absolute, undeniable authority in the small room. “Is a formal, legally binding notification of immediate financial termination.”
My father took a step forward, his face flushing a deep, angry red. “Financial termination? What the hell does that mean?”
“It means,” Naomi read from the document, her eyes scanning the legal jargon with practiced ease, “an immediate freeze has been placed on all supplementary bank accounts, credit lines, and corporate cards issued under Sarah Davis’s name. This includes the platinum card you are currently using to pay the painters at your residence.”
My father’s mouth dropped open. The color drained from his face, leaving him looking suddenly old and grey. “You can’t do that! The deposit for Lily’s convertible… they’re running the card right now! We just swiped it an hour ago!”
