Chapter 5 - THE MOTHER’S FINAL CARDSWord reached the women’s holding facility within hours: Richard and Eleanor Vance had both been arrested, and the conspiracy was fully exposed to the media.
The press was having a field day. Headlines dominated television screens across the nation:
"THE SECRET BILLIONAIRE: JULIAN BLACKWOOD BREAKS SILENCE AFTER HOSPITAL ATTACK"
"SOCIETY MATRIARCH GENEVIEVE BLACKWOOD CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER OF UNBORN HEIR"
"VANCE PHARMA COLLAPSED FOLLOWING ARREST OF CEO AND DAUGHTER"
Inside her cold, grey jail cell, Genevieve was losing her mind. Gone were her silk dresses, her diamond necklace, and her expensive hair treatments. She wore a orange jumpsuit, sitting on a hard metal bench.
Her lawyer, Arthur Sterling, sat across from her behind the glass partition.
"You have to get me bail, Arthur!" Genevieve slammed her hands against the glass. "Pay the judge! Use the offshore accounts! I cannot stay in this place another night! The women here... they’re monsters!"
Arthur sighed, rubbing his temples with deep exhaustion. "Genevieve, there is no bail. The judge deemed you a severe flight risk and a public danger. Furthermore, Julian has frozen all family trust accounts under his authority as chief owner."
"He can't do that!" she screamed. "I am his mother!"
"He can, and he did," Arthur said flatly. "And there’s more. Julian is filing a civil suit to strip you of all remaining assets, your real estate properties, and your title within the foundation. You are facing up to thirty years in federal prison without parole."
Genevieve’s mind raced. Thirty years? She would die in prison. She would be an old woman, stripped of her dignity, her money, and her status.
"No..." she whimpered, her voice cracking. "No, there must be a way out. He’s my son! He’s weak! He soft-hearted! If I talk to him... if I apologize..."
"He refuses to see you," Arthur shattered her last delusion. "He handed me a message to pass along to you, however."
Arthur pulled out a small slip of paper and read Julian’s words aloud:
May you like
"You told my wife to choose between her life and her child. Now, Mother, you can choose between spending thirty years in prison with a tiny chance of surviving to old age, or signing the full confession, forfeiting every single cent you stole from the estate, and spending the rest of your days in a solitary cell."
Genevieve fell back against the concrete wall, tears of rage and helplessness streaming down her wrinkled cheeks. The trap she had set for me had snapped shut on her own neck.
