Chapter 8 - Cuffs and Silver Threads
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The second officer immediately stepped toward Victoria.
“Ma’am, do not move,” the officer commanded.
Victoria turned around, preparing to sprint back up the icy steps toward the mansion, but the officer caught her by the arm of her white fur coat, pulling her hands behind her back.
“Get your filthy hands off me!” Victoria screamed, thrashing against the officer’s grip. “Do you have any idea who my father is? My father is a senior partner at Hart & Associates! You can’t touch me!”
“You are under arrest for felony child endangerment and accessory to grand theft,” the officer stated calmly, clicking the handcuffs around her wrists.
“Daniel, do something!” Victoria shrieked as she was marched toward the second police car. “You weak, pathetic coward! Tell them I had nothing to do with those accounts!”
Daniel didn't answer her. He sat in the back of the first cruiser, his forehead pressed against the cold glass, sobbing uncontrollably.
I turned back to my truck, my mind spinning into complete darkness.
Rachel had trusted me. My dying daughter-in-law had set up an account in my name to protect her son, and my own child had stolen my identity, forged my signature, and emptied it right under my nose.
I opened the passenger door of my truck and climbed inside beside Ethan. I wrapped my arms around him, pulling his warm, blanket-wrapped body tightly against my chest.
“It’s over, Ethan,” I whispered into his snow-damp hair. “I’ve got you. Nobody is ever going to hurt you again.”
The senior officer knocked gently on the driver’s side window. I rolled it down.
“Sir,” the officer said, his face softened with sympathy. “We need to take Ethan to the hospital emergency room right away to get his feet checked for severe frostbite and tissue damage. Can you follow us to Saint Jude’s?”
May you like
“Yes, Officer,” I replied. “I’m right behind you.”
As the police cruisers pulled out of the driveway, their red lights reflecting off the dark windows of the empty mansion, I turned my truck around and followed them into the blizzard.
