Chapter 21 - Handcuffs for Vanessa
While Grant was trapped in the courthouse, facing the total annihilation of his legal rights, the Denver police were executing an arrest warrant across town.
Vanessa Vale thought she had successfully completely severed ties with Grant. She had used the last of her available credit on a high-interest card to book a suite at a boutique hotel downtown, planning to hit the high-end hotel bars that evening to find her next wealthy victim.
She was sitting in the hotel lobby, sipping a fifty-dollar martini and scrolling through her phone, entirely oblivious to the storm bearing down on her.
"Valerie Vane?" a deep voice asked.
Vanessa froze. She hadn't heard her real name in three years. She looked up slowly, her empty eyes widening in shock as she saw two uniformed police officers and a plainclothes detective standing over her small cocktail table.
"Excuse me? You must have the wrong person. My name is Vanessa Vale," she lied smoothly, offering a practiced, flirty smile.
"Save it, Valerie," the detective said, pulling a pair of heavy steel handcuffs from his belt. "We ran your prints through the national database. We know exactly who you are. Stand up and place your hands behind your back."
"On what charges?!" Vanessa shrieked, dropping her martini glass. It shattered on the marble floor, drawing the stares of dozens of wealthy hotel guests.
"Felony child abuse, felony child endangerment, and extortion," the detective announced loudly, grabbing her arm and violently spinning her around. He clicked the cold steel cuffs securely around her wrists. "We have the medical reports, and we have the video footage of you forcing a five-year-old girl to kneel on stilettos."
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The crowd in the lobby gasped in collective horror. Whispers of disgust rippled through the room. Vanessa’s face turned a violent shade of crimson as the absolute humiliation washed over her. She tried to fight, kicking her heels against the officers' shins, screaming obscenities about me, about Grant, about how unfair the world was.
They dragged her out of the luxurious hotel kicking and screaming, throwing her into the back of a police cruiser like common street trash. She was finally going to a place where her beauty and manipulation meant absolutely nothing.
