Chapter 19 - THE ARREST ON LIVE TELEVISION
"Ava, don't!" Emma screamed, throwing her entire body over Daniel’s unconscious form, shielding his head and chest with her own flesh. "If you kill him, you become the monster! You become Judith! You become Victoria!"
Ava’s hand shook, the barrel of the revolver trembling just inches from Emma’s back. "You don't understand, Emma! Sterling is at the courthouse right now with the district attorney! Victoria made a plea deal from her hospital bed! She’s giving them a fabricated confession that implicates June and Thomas! By noon, your mother’s memorial will be torn down by bulldozers, and you will be arrested for conspiracy!"
"Then let them come!" Emma shouted, turning her head to look Ava straight in the eyes, her gaze blazing with an unyielding, ferocious defiance. "Let them bring their cameras! Let them bring their prosecutors! Because we have the tape, Ava! We have June’s real voice! We have the fire chief’s confession!"
Downstairs, the screech of tires tore through the silence of the gravel driveway, followed by the wailing chorus of multiple police sirens. Flashing red and blue lights painted the bedroom ceiling in frantic, strobing hues.
Ava froze, her eyes darting toward the window. "The police. Sterling tracked my car."
The man in the motorcycle helmet cursed, sprinting toward the rear balcony and vaulting over the railing into the dense woods behind the farm.
Ava stared at the gun in her hand, then at Emma, who remained draped over Daniel, refusing to budge.
"You’re a fool, Emma," Ava whispered, tears streaming down her pale cheeks. "You think the law protects people like us? It protects the ones with the name on the building."
Ava shoved the vintage music box into Emma’s hands, turned, and bolted down the back stairwell just as the front doors downstairs were battered open with a tremendous crash.
"State police! Nobody move!" heavy footsteps pounded up the stairs.
Emma pressed her hand firmly against Daniel’s bleeding forehead, feeling the faint, steady pulse beneath his skin. "Stay with me, Daniel," she whispered, her tears falling onto his pale cheek. "Please, just stay with me."
Four state troopers burst into the bedroom with weapons drawn, followed immediately by Marcus Sterling and a team of county detectives. Behind them, local news camera crews were already filming from the hallway, their bright halogen lights illuminating the bloodstained floorboards.
"Lower your hands! Step away from the victim!" the lead detective shouted.
"He was attacked!" Emma yelled over the chaos. "Call an ambulance! Daniel needs immediate medical attention!"
Marcus Sterling stepped into the room, a sickening smirk playing upon his thin lips. He looked directly at the television cameras broadcasting live to thousands of households across the state.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the press," Sterling announced with theatrical gravity. "What you are witnessing is the tragic conclusion of a twenty-six-year fraud. Miss Emma Arden, having realized her fraudulent claim on the Vance estate was unraveling, has violently assaulted her new husband in an attempt to flee jurisdiction."
"You lying snake!" Emma screamed, rising to her feet, clutching the music box against her chest. "Ava attacked him! Victoria hired Ava’s associates! Look at the tape inside this box! The truth about the 1994 fire is right here!"
"Secure the suspect," Sterling ordered smoothly, turning to the detectives. "She is clearly hysterical and dangerous."
Two officers grabbed Emma’s arms, wrenching them behind her back and snapping cold steel handcuffs around her wrists. The vintage music box was violently knocked from her grip, clattering across the floorboards.
"Daniel!" Emma screamed as she was dragged toward the hallway, fighting against the officers’ grip with every ounce of strength left in her body. "Daniel, wake up!"
As they shoved her past the flashing cameras and out into the blinding midday sun, Emma saw Thomas standing by the police barricade, weeping silently into his hands, unable to meet her eyes.
And sitting in the back of a luxury black town car parked just beyond the perimeter, watching through tinted glass, was a figure that made Emma’s blood turn to ice.
May you like
A woman with wavy auburn hair, wearing a dark trench coat, watching Emma with cold, calculating eyes—before the car smoothly accelerated and vanished down the highway into the fog.
***
