Chapter 6 - The Parasite’s Revolt
With Derek fired and Belinda locked up, the unholy alliance between mother and son began to rot from the inside out.
Three days later, in a cramped, fluorescent-lit visitor room at the South Division Detention Facility, Derek sat across from his mother through a thick pane of glass.
Belinda looked horrific. Her hair was unwashed, her designer knock-off dress was wrinkled, and her eyes were bloodshot with fury.
“Why am I still here, Derek?!” Belinda shrieked through the intercom phone. “Why haven't you posted my $5,000 bail?!”
Derek looked pathetic in a wrinkled shirt, sitting on the cold metal stool. “Mom… I don't have $5,000. I don't even have fifty dollars.”
“What are you talking about?! You’re a senior technician! Use your credit cards!”
“Joanne canceled the cards!” Derek yelled back, tears streaming down his face. “She took the house! She called my company and showed them the fake receipts! I got fired, Mom! I’m unemployed! I’m sleeping on a cot at my friend Dave’s garage!”
Belinda froze, her expression shifting from anger to utter disgust. “You got fired? You let that woman ruin you? What kind of man are you?!”
“What kind of man am I?!” Derek shouted back, attracting the attention of two jail guards. “I gave you my entire $10,000 bonus! I took out a secret $15,000 loan for you! I ruined my marriage, my relationship with my daughter, and my entire life because you kept telling me a good son always puts his mother first!”
“Don't you dare blame me!” Belinda snarled, banging her fist against the glass. “You were the one who couldn't control your wife! You let her handle all the money! You were weak!”
“I was weak because I listened to YOU!” Derek wept, his voice echoing in the bleak room. “She supported us for eleven years! She paid for your knee surgery! She paid for your luxury vacations! And you turned me against her because you were jealous that she was everything you could never be!”
Belinda sneered coldly through the glass. “If you aren't going to get me out of here, then lose my number, Derek. You’re as useless as your father was.”
Derek stared at his mother through the glass, the last scales finally falling from his eyes.
For eleven years, he had worshipped this woman, sacrificing his brilliant, wealthy, loving wife on the altar of maternal manipulation. And the second he ran out of money, his mother threw him away like trash.
“The guard told me,” Derek whispered, his voice trembling with bitter clarity, “that if you sign the consent form to return the $10,000 frozen in your account back to the court, the prosecutor will drop the felony asset-shielding charge and release you on personal recognizance.”
“No!” Belinda snapped instantly. “That’s MY money! You gave it to me!”
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“It’s not your money, Mom!” Derek screamed. “It’s Joanne’s money! And it was ALWAYS Joanne’s money!”
Derek slammed the phone receiver back onto the wall hook, turned his back on his mother, and walked out of the visitor room while Belinda screamed his name, beating her fists against the glass until the guards dragged her away.
