Chapter 10 - The Arrests
Daniel’s face drained of all color, leaving him looking like a ghost in an expensive suit. He looked frantically at his lawyer, but the man was already packing his briefcase, desperate to distance himself from a client who had just been caught on tape.
"Claire, tell them it was an accident!" Daniel pleaded, his voice high and desperate, completely abandoning his earlier threats. "Tell them my mother tripped!"
I sat up slightly against the pillows. I couldn't see his face, but I knew exactly where he was standing. I looked directly into the blur of his outline.
"You told me to stop overreacting, Daniel," I said, my voice steady and cold, devoid of any affection. "So I did. Now, the law can react for me."
"Claire, please—"
"Get him out of my room," I commanded.
The detective gripped Daniel's arm firmly and escorted the protesting, panicked man out into the hospital corridor.
The arrests happened rapidly. Vivian Cross was apprehended that evening while dining at an exclusive country club. According to the news reports, she was physically dragged out in handcuffs in front of her elite social circle, screaming that it was all a misunderstanding.
Daniel was arrested two hours later at the police precinct, after investigators reviewed the doorbell footage and concluded that he had intentionally and maliciously restrained me during the chemical attack.
They were both booked into the county jail, their perfect reputations shattered overnight.
But as I lay in the hospital bed, listening to the news updates on my father’s phone, I felt no sense of completion. Putting them in jail for assault was only the first step. They had tried to ruin my life because they thought they were untouchable.
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My parents were not finished dismantling the Cross empire.
And neither was I.
