Chapter 7 - The Concrete Cage
The temperature inside Interrogation Room B at the downtown precinct was intentionally kept at a freezing sixty degrees.
Chloe Sterling sat shivering on a hard metal chair, her arms wrapped tightly around her ruined emerald green dress.
The fabric was stained with Emma's blood and torn at the seams from her violent struggle with the arresting officers.
Her expensive makeup had melted down her face in messy, black streaks, making her look like a deranged raccoon rather than a prominent socialite.
The heavy steel door finally opened, and Detective Vance walked in, carrying a thick manila folder and a small digital tablet.
He did not offer her a cup of water, nor did he apologize for keeping her waiting for over three hours in the freezing room.
"My father is going to have your badge for this!" Chloe shrieked the moment Vance sat down across the metal table.
"You cannot treat me like some common street criminal, I demand to speak to my lawyer immediately!"
Vance opened the folder slowly, casually flattening the papers inside before he even bothered to look up at her angry face.
"Your father's personal lawyer, Mr. Harrison, declined to come down to the station tonight," Vance stated calmly.
Chloe blinked in confusion, her aggressive posture deflating slightly as the reality of his words failed to register in her privileged mind.
"What do you mean he declined?" she stammered, her voice dropping an octave.
"I mean that Mr. Harrison saw the financial documents your sister-in-law provided to us, and he wisely decided to distance himself from your sinking ship," Vance explained, tapping his pen on the table.
Vance slid the digital tablet across the cold metal surface and pressed the play button.
The crisp, high-definition footage from the chandelier's hidden camera began to play, showing the grand marble staircase of the mansion.
Chloe watched in absolute horror as her own digital ghost lunged forward and violently shoved a heavily pregnant Emma down the stairs.
The video was undeniable, damning, and perfectly captured from an angle that highlighted the pure malice on Chloe's face.
"You are facing first-degree attempted murder, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment of an unborn child," Vance said, his voice hard as stone.
"If that baby had died tonight, you would be looking at life without the possibility of parole."
Chloe burst into massive, ugly sobs, burying her face in her hands as the final walls of her delusional world came crashing down.
She had spent her entire life believing that her family's wealth could buy her way out of any consequence, but the currency of the Sterling name had just become completely worthless.
Meanwhile, in the holding cell just down the hall, Arthur Sterling was furiously rattling the steel bars like a caged animal.
He had demanded his phone call over twenty times, entirely unaware that the FBI had already seized all of his corporate assets.
May you like
Julian sat on a wooden bench outside the captain's office, ignoring his father's distant yelling as he stared blankly at the dirty floor tiles.
He was technically free to leave, but he had no money, no home to return to, and absolutely no courage to face the world alone.
