CHAPTER 13: THE UNRAVELING OF KAREN PARKER
CHAPTER 13: THE UNRAVELING OF KAREN PARKER
Karen Parker did not look like a queen anymore.
She waited for Olivia outside the hospital parking garage at midnight, huddled under a cheap, clear plastic umbrella. The wind off the Hudson River was brutal, soaking the hem of her designer trench coat. When Olivia approached, Karen didn't yell or demand superiority. She looked fragile, her porcelain skin pale and hollow under the flickering yellow streetlamps.
"Olivia, please," Karen gasped, her hands shaking as she clutched a leather handbag to her chest. "Just five minutes. Please."
Olivia stopped, her car keys gripped tightly between her fingers, her body tense. "Karen. It’s past midnight. If this is about the Vanguard endowment, Emily already gave her answer. The answer is no."
"It’s not the endowment," Karen whispered, stepping closer, her perfect posture completely gone. "Richard is... he’s losing his mind, Olivia. The board at his firm forced him into early retirement this morning. They told him his personal brand has become a liability to their portfolio. He’s turning everything on me now. The house, the lifestyle... he’s calculating what I cost him."
Olivia felt a sickening wave of deja vu wash over her. The arithmetic. It never changed.
"He told me," Karen sobbed, a manic edge in her voice, "that if I hadn't cried so much in that hospital room fifteen years ago, he would have handled the situation cleanly. He blames me for letting you take her. He blames me for the speech because I didn't 'control' my own child."
Olivia looked at the woman who had carried Emily for nine months and then left her to die in a sterile room because of public opinion. She felt no anger anymore. Only a profound, heavy pity.
"You chose his safety over your daughter's life, Karen," Olivia said quietly. "Now you’re realizing his safety was just a very expensive cage."
May you like
"Help me," Karen begged, reaching out, her manicured nails brushing Olivia’s damp scrubs. "Talk to Emily. If she just signs a short joint statement... a press release saying we’ve privately reconciled, that it was a family misunderstanding... the firm will let Richard back in. The bleeding will stop."
"No," Olivia said, stepping back, breaking the contact. Her voice was steady as steel. "Emily is a doctor saving lives on three hours of sleep. She is not your shield from the man you chose. Go home, Karen. Or what’s left of it."
