Chapter 5 - The Fall of the House of Sterling
The arrest was broadcast live on three national networks simultaneously.
Two female detectives in plain clothes stepped through the crush of reporters, their badges gleaming under the crystal chandeliers of the foyer. They didn't ask for statements. They didn't offer polite deferential treatment to the queen of the city’s social elite.
"Eleanor Sterling," the lead detective said, her voice echoing off the marble walls. "You are under arrest for the attempted murder of Valerie Sterling, and the unlawful termination of a pregnancy resulting from criminal negligence. Turn around and place your hands behind your back."
"This is a forgery!" Eleanor shrieked, her regal composure shattering into jagged shards as she thrashed against the officer's grip, her expensive black silk tearing at the seam. "Julian! Do something! Call our lawyers! This is a digital fabrication! Julian!"
Julian didn't move. He stood frozen on the stairs, staring at the spot where I had fallen three days ago. The wool blindfold had been ripped from his eyes, not just about his mother, but about every single lie he had swallowed during their five-year marriage.
As they dragged Eleanor toward the double doors—her manicured nails clawing uselessly at the air, her face twisted in a mask of primal fury—she screamed one final threat into the camera lenses:
"Valerie! If you're watching this, you ungrateful little bitch, I will rot in hell before I let you take a single penny of this estate!"
The heavy oak doors slammed shut behind her, cutting off her voice.
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Silence rushed back into the foyer, heavier and colder than before. The reporters slowly turned their cameras away from the empty doorway, looking around in confusion for the mysterious orchestrator of the leak.
None of them knew that upstairs, standing in the shadows of the second-floor landing just out of view of the lenses, I was watching it all end.
