Chapter 5 - The Detective's Warning"Mr. Vance, step back from the bed," Detective Miller, a tall, weathered man with sharp gray eyes, commanded, placing a hand firmly on Julian’s chest.
Julian didn't flinch. He kept his eyes locked on mine, a thin, chilling smile touching the corner of his mouth for a fraction of a second before vanishing. "Detective, my mother is clearly unwell. She’s elderly, she’s grieving, and she’s fabricated an elaborate delusion because she couldn't accept my daughter's natural passing."
"Natural passing?" Detective Miller pulled a folded sheet of paper from his coat pocket and snapped it open. "Mr. Vance, toxicology reports from the ER show your daughter was injected with a Class-4 paralytic agent. Furthermore, we pulled financial records from your joint accounts showing a wire transfer of four hundred thousand dollars from an offshore account three days before the 'funeral'."
Julian’s jaw tightened. The mask of the grieving father cracked slightly, revealing the desperate, cornered man underneath.
"I want a lawyer," Julian said flatly, his voice dropping all pretense.
"You'll get one," Detective Miller replied, nodding to the officers outside. "Cuffs on."
As the steel bracelets clicked around Julian’s wrists, he shot me one last look—a look not of anger, but of terrifying warning. "You think you saved her, Mom? You have no idea who you just woke up."
Before I could answer, Detective Miller turned his attention to me. "Mrs. Vance, we’re moving Chloe into protective custody as soon as she's stable. But given the nature of the financial transactions we're seeing, Julian wasn't acting alone. Victoria has already vanished."
My blood ran cold. "Vanished? What do you mean vanished?"
"When the patrol officers went back to the house to secure the premises, Victoria was gone. Her car is missing, and so are her passports." Detective Miller leaned in closer. "Whoever funded that offshore account isn't a local bank. It’s an international syndicate linked to high-stakes medical trafficking and insurance fraud rings operating out of Chicago. Julian was just the muscle—or the fall guy."
I turned my head slowly toward the hospital bed. Chloe stirred, letting out a soft sigh in her sleep, her small chest rising and falling steadily.
May you like
She was safe here, under police guard, in the bright, sterile light of the hospital.
Or so I thought.
