7 Months Pregnant, Doing Chores for Checkup Money

Nina Sharp is seven months pregnant and has lost all her clients. Her husband Derek Wright hands her a housework pay list—five dollars for sweeping, three for dishes, ten for cooking. She cannot afford a prenatal checkup.

When Nina finds cash in Derek's wallet, he and Vanessa walk in on her. Derek accuses her of stealing and calls the police. She is on her knees, clutching the money, explaining she needs it for a checkup. The police take her away. In the interrogation room, she collapses and is taken to the hospital.

At the hospital, Derek's mother Margaret is beside her. Margaret says the DA dropped the case. Four years earlier, Derek's father needed a $500,000 surgery. Derek believed Nina controlled the money and refused to pay. The truth: Nina borrowed from everyone she could and raised $80,000, still far short, and she had been paying for Margaret's asthma medication every month. Derek's father knew the family could not afford it. Margaret tells Derek all of this. Derek does not accept it. He still blames Nina.

Margaret leaves the same day. After Nina is released, at home, Derek makes her sign an IOU and a property use agreement charging her thirty dollars per hour to use floors one through three. Vanessa drafts it. Nina moves into the storage room. The next morning, a security gate is installed outside it. At two, the gate opens. She scrubs bathroom tiles on her knees for ten dollars; by night, the usage fees and interest wipe it out.

In the storage room, Nina starts bleeding heavily. She calls Derek and begs him to save her. He asks if it is Braxton Hicks and hangs up. She calls 911. The operator learns she is locked in from the outside. Emergency services are dispatched.

At the hospital, a doctor says one sentence. Derek breaks down.