Matricide

1 My mother-in-law had been accidentally poisoned. She was knocking on death's door, and I, the only toxicologist in the city who could save her, was her last hope. I had just hung up the phone and was about to leave when my husband, Aiden, blocked my path. "Today's the grand opening of Nina's Terror Dome," he said, his voice laced with annoyance. "If you take off, who's going to play the penniless NPC?" My face hardened. "The golden window for the antidote is thirty minutes. One second late, and your mother could die." Aiden just rolled his eyes. "If your janitor mom kicks the bucket, she kicks the bucket. I'll throw some extra cash at her funeral, big deal. But if you dare cause a scene today, I'll ruin you." His female bestie, Nina, draped herself over him with a playful laugh. "What's the hurry, Dia? Itching to sneak out and meet some other guy? Look at that long face, longer than when you're getting off. Right, my big boy?" I almost laughed at their shamelessness. It clicked. Aiden thought the one dying was my mother. "Fine," I said, my voice eerily calm as I put the case containing the serum back down. "I won't go." Aiden blinked, clearly taken aback. He probably expected me to burst into tears, to beg him, or to make a desperate run for the door. He sized me up, a frown creasing his brow. "Scared, are you? Good. Nina's grand opening is a hell of a lot more important than your worthless mother." Nina giggled, playfully punching his chest. "See? I told you my big boy knows how to train a woman. I bet you broke her in bed to make her this obedient. That new position you tried on me last time had my legs sore for three days!" They collapsed into a fit of laughter, grabbing at each other. I cleared my throat. Aiden’s patience snapped. "What now, Dia? Just let your filthy, foul-smelling mother die. The stench of piss and shit just clings to her." He sneered. "Did she poison herself digging through another dumpster for dinner? Honestly, why would you even go? To collect her corpse? Just flush it down a sewer and be done with it." I had always told myself that Aiden was just being influenced by Nina, this toxic "one of the guys" type of woman. That his cruelty was a temporary lapse in judgment. But I never imagined he would think it was my mother who was dying. And that my mother’s life, in his eyes, was worth less than the grand opening of Nina’s tacky haunted house. The disgust was suffocating. I pulled out a chair and sat down. "Fine. I'm not leaving. Your good time is what's most important. What's a life in comparison?" Aiden stared for a second, the contempt in his eyes deepening. "Glad you know your place. So you finally admit your stinking mother's life is cheap." Nina cackled, hanging off Aiden like a vine. "It's for the best you see reality, Dia. I bet your mom is just trying to scam some money before she croaks. Were you planning to rush over and grab your cut before she stopped breathing?" Aiden basked in her attention, letting her hands roam over his body. "Let me tell you something, Dia. I invested thirty million dollars in this Terror Dome. It's my gift to Nina. If you dare ruin our mood, I won't just let your mother die. I'll make sure your entire family joins her." Just then, Aiden's phone rang. He answered on speaker, his voice dripping with irritation. "Is this Mr. Blackwood? Your mother is fading fast! If Dr. Hayes doesn't get here with the serum, there's nothing more we can do!" That's when Aiden exploded. He lunged at me, grabbing my arm so violently that the serum case I was holding clattered to the floor. "Don't you dare compare that old hag to my mother!" he roared into the phone. "If she's going to die, tell her to get on with it! Call and harass me again, and I'll burn your damn hospital to the ground!" He slammed the phone down and, in a fit of rage, brought his heel down on the serum case. The delicate vial inside shattered, the sound echoing the final snap of my mother-in-law's lifeline. To create that single, tiny vial, my team had spent three years locked in a lab. We'd failed over a thousand times, burning through enough funding to buy ten of his ridiculous theme parks. That was the only finished dose in existence. Aiden, however, looked triumphant. "Just let your broke-ass mom rot and stink up the hospital," he sneered. "If it weren't for that pretty face and the fact that you put out in bed, do you think you would have ever married into the Blackwood family?" Nina stood on her toes and kissed his chin. "Isn't it a good thing your mom's dead, Dia? Now we won't have to deal with her constantly trying to leech off us. Last time, she asked me to find her a job sweeping a park, said she could collect an extra twenty bottles a day! Can you believe it? So pathetic!" I had to laugh. The annual interest from my mother's trust fund alone could buy out the Blackwood family ten times over. Who the hell did they think they were? The Blackwood business was a sinking ship I had secretly bailed out because I felt sorry for him. Ever since I was kidnapped as a child, the resulting trauma had made my mother insist I keep my identity a secret. And here he was, using my money to buy gifts for Nina while humiliating me for my supposed poverty. The audacity was breathtaking. "Whether you want to save a dying person is your business," I said, my voice dangerously low. "But if you dare insult my mother again, don't blame me for what happens next." Aiden’s face twisted in a sneer. "Are you threatening me? Don't want to collect your mother's corpse anymore? I'll have you know, her dying today is a sacrifice to bless the opening of Nina's Terror Dome!" His friends chimed in. "Yeah, Ryan! The park opens tonight! We still haven't tested that new extreme horror theme." Aiden glanced at me, then waved at his bodyguards. "Since you're so eager to run your mouth, you can be Nina's test subject!" I fought, but they were too strong, pinning me to an operating table in a room designed to look like a biohazard lab. Nina stood over me, holding a massive, prop syringe. "Welcome to my laboratory of horrors!" she announced to the room. "Today, we will be conducting a thrilling live experiment!" The crowd roared with laughter. "Damn, this is good! The effects are amazing. I'm gonna live-stream this; it'll create a huge buzz for tonight's opening." Just then, my phone, still in my jacket pocket, began to ring incessantly. Annoyed at the interruption, Aiden snatched it. His eyes fell on the caller ID: "Chairman Hayes." With a roar of fury, he smashed the phone against my head. "You've got some nerve, Dia! Already found yourself a sugar daddy!" Nina poked him in the chest. "A Chairman, huh? You're really something, Dia. Stringing my big boy along while you're hooking up with some old geezer on the side?" Her voice turned venomous. "I bet you killed your own mother on purpose, just to scam some cash so you could run off with your new rich boyfriend!" As she spoke, she drew a viscous, unnerving liquid from a beaker into the syringe. "Let me teach you a lesson, you shameless whore." Aiden's eyes gleamed with excitement. "Great idea, Nina! Later, we'll strip her naked and lock her in a cage for all the visitors to see!" Hearing this, Nina lunged, aiming the needle straight for my neck. But the escape artist training from my childhood kidnapping hadn't faded. In a fluid motion, I broke the rope bindings and twisted, redirecting the syringe and plunging it deep into the back of her hand. "AHH!" Nina's scream was bloodcurdling. The skin on her hand began to corrode, sizzling as white smoke rose from it. "My hand! My hand!" she shrieked in terror. Her friends, who had been laughing moments before, backed away in horror. "What the hell? I thought that was a prop!" "Is… is that real acid?" Panic seized Aiden. He rushed to Nina, cradling her and kissing her rotting hand, before turning on me and slapping me across the face. "You bitch, Dia! You dare hurt Nina! If you don't get on your knees and beg for her forgiveness right now, I swear I'll make sure they never even find your mother's ashes!" At that moment, a commotion erupted at the entrance. "Dr. Hayes! We tried calling you a dozen times! We had to use your phone's GPS to find you!" Several paramedics rushed in, their faces grim. "The patient was still holding on, waiting for your serum, but on the way here…" One of them sighed heavily. "She's gone. We've brought the body for the family. You should start making arrangements." Aiden looked disgusted. "God, Dia, your mother is relentless even in death." Nina, her face a mask of pain and hate, screamed, "They brought the corpse here? Well, isn't that a grand opening gift! A special guest of honor for the premiere!" Her twisted joke broke the tension, and the friends started laughing again. "Aiden, you're a genius! A real corpse as a prop for opening night? The publicity will be insane!" "It does stink a bit, though. What is that smell?" Aiden pinched his nose, then kicked the gurney with disgust. "Get this unlucky trash out of here! Can't even die in peace!" The body rolled off the gurney and hit the floor with a sickening thud. The face was swollen and purple, completely unrecognizable. But Aiden had found a new source of amusement. He grabbed my hair and forced my face down toward the corpse on the floor. "Dia, if you get on your knees right now and bark like a dog to apologize to Nina, I might consider sparing your mother's remains. Otherwise, she's going to be the Terror Dome's first real ghost!" The pain in my scalp was excruciating. But all I could feel was a strange, dark amusement at the scene unfolding before me. I slapped his hand away. "You're the one who's so good at acting like an animal. Why don't you show me? Let's hear what a pair of dogs in heat sound like." Aiden's face contorted with rage. "You dare talk back to me, you bitch!" He lifted his foot and brought it down hard, stomping on the head of the corpse. I just smiled. "Aiden, I only ever said 'my mother' was poisoned and dying." "What if," I continued, my voice sweet as poison, "the head under your foot isn't my mother's… but yours?" He threw his head back and roared with laughter. "My mother? Dia, has grief finally broken your brain? My mom is on vacation in Europe. You're wishing death on her now?" He sneered. "Let me tell you, the entire world could die before my mother does. Comparing your dumpster-diving, filthy old hag to my mother is like comparing heaven and hell." Nina clutched her blackening hand, her eyes spitting venom. "Don't waste your breath on her, big boy! She's doing it on purpose! Look what this bitch did to my hand! Chop up her dead mom! Do it now!" Aiden's eyes turned murderous. He grabbed a fire axe from a wall display and raised it over the body. "Whatever my precious Nina wants, she gets. These limbs will look great in the haunted house tonight. Give the guests a touch of realism!" The heavy, wet thud of the axe echoed through the room, over and over. But I just laughed. Aiden was truly, stupendously idiotic. I couldn't wait to see his face when he found out whose body he was currently dismembering. He was still gloating. "How about that, Dia? This is your mother's final contribution to our Terror Dome. You should be thanking me." "I'll give you one last chance. Get on your knees, chop off the hand that hurt Nina, and I'll let you collect what's left of your mother." He reached for me. I grabbed a heavy iron skillet from a nearby prop table and swung it with all my might into his face. The impact sent him staggering backward, blood gushing from his nose. Everyone froze, stunned into silence. Nina pointed a trembling, corroded finger at me. "You hit my big boy! Get her! Cut off her hands and feet!" The bodyguards started to move, but Aiden wobbled back to his feet. He wiped the blood from his face, his eyes glowing with a terrifying, manic light. "Good. Very good," he hissed. "It seems I've been too kind to you. You've forgotten what you are." He grabbed the severed head of the corpse and began dragging it toward the back courtyard. The guards seized me, forcing me to follow. In the courtyard was a massive industrial shredder. "Dia," Aiden snarled, his voice a low growl, "since you refuse to learn your lesson, you can watch your mother get turned into pulp!" He switched on the machine. With a triumphant roar, he tossed the dismembered body parts into the grinder. The machine roared to life, a gruesome fountain of blood and viscera spraying everywhere. Aiden stood beside it, drenched in the gory mess. He even spread his arms wide, reveling in it. "HAHAHA! DO YOU SEE THAT, DIA? THAT'S YOUR MOTHER'S FINAL FATE! GROUND TO A PASTE! YOU WON'T EVEN BE ABLE TO COLLECT HER ASHES!" He turned his head, his crimson eyes locking onto me. "Now, it's your turn!" Just as he raised the axe and charged toward me, the courtyard gates burst open. My father-in-law rushed in, his face pale with urgency. He swung his cane, cracking it across Aiden's face. "Your mother is dying, and you're stopping Dia from saving her?" he screamed, his voice breaking. "Where is her body? The hospital said they delivered the body! Where is it?"

? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "394388", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel