Chapter 5 - THE EXPULSION ORDER"Get out," Martha said.
The two words dropped into the silence like blocks of solid ice.
Vanessa’s breath hitched. Panic, hot and frantic, surged through her veins. All the arrogance, the haughty superiority, the untouchable queen-bee persona dissolved instantly into pathetic desperation. She grabbed Martha’s sleeve with trembling fingers, her fingernails digging into the fine fabric of the pantsuit.
"Martha... please," Vanessa whimpered, her voice cracking as tears welled up in her eyes. "Please, I'm sorry! I didn't know! It was a mistake! We can share it! You can stay in the master suite, you can have the staff wait on you! Just... please don't kick me out! Everything I have is here! My clothes, my jewelry, my cars, my friends—!"
Martha looked down at Vanessa's trembling hand gripping her sleeve. With agonizing slowness, Martha lifted her other hand and deliberately, finger by finger, peeled Vanessa's grip away from her arm, stepping back as if touching Vanessa would contaminate her.
"When you ordered me to leave yesterday, you packed my entire life into a cheap plastic suitcase," Martha said coldly, gesturing toward the front door where a security guard was already holding the heavy oak portal wide open. "You didn't offer me a room. You didn't offer me a severance. You told me to walk out into the rain with nothing."
Martha turned to Agent Miller and Mr. Sterling. "Escort the trespasser off the property. Ensure her personal items are packed into garbage bags and placed by the front gates where they belong."
"No! No, you can't do this!" Vanessa screamed, her voice turning feral as Agent Miller and another guard grabbed her firmly by both arms, hauling her away from the staircase. "Let me go! This is my house! You old witch! You planned this! You planned all of it!"
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"Yes, Vanessa," Martha whispered softly as they dragged the kicking, screaming woman across the marble floor. "I planned every single day of it for twenty-five years. And now, welcome to your first day in the real world."
The heavy oak doors slammed shut behind Vanessa, cutting off her frantic shrieks. The mansion fell into a profound, sacred quiet.
