Chapter 4 - THE INTERROGATION
The marshal unclipped a small communication unit and held it out toward David as if presenting a dead fish. David’s knees wobbled. He looked around the kitchen as if searching for an escape route—out the window, through the pantry, anywhere—but the exits were blocked by federal badges.
"D-Dad... Chief Justice..." David stammered, his voice cracking pathetically as he reached out a trembling hand to take the device. "There’s... there’s been a massive misunderstanding. Anna and I were just having a routine disagreement—stress from the holidays, you know how it is—nothing serious—"
"David," my father interrupted. The single word sounded like the closing of a prison door. "For twenty-eight years, I have sat on the bench evaluating human credibility. I have listened to career perjurers, corrupt corporate executives, and hardened felons attempt to spin falsehoods into gold. Never in my entire judicial career have I heard a delivery quite as pathetic as yours."
"Sir, please—let me explain—"
"You don't need to explain anything," Robert Sterling said, his tone turning glacial. "At 6:14 PM, my private security detail intercepted a distress signal routed through an encrypted backup protocol embedded in Anna’s personal devices—a protocol I installed myself the day she married you, because I knew the exact measure of the man she chose."
David’s jaw went slack. "You... you had us monitored?"
"I protected my daughter," my father corrected coldly. "And in doing so, my systems recorded the audio of the last twenty minutes in this house. I heard you mock her. I heard you shove her to the floor. I heard the sound of her phone breaking against the tile while she was carrying my grandchild."
A collective gasp echoed from the living room. Sylvia, overhearing the exchange, clutched her chest and slumped heavily into an armchair, her social standing evaporating in real-time.
"As of seven minutes ago," my father continued, unfazed, "three distinct actions have been executed. First, the Executive Committee of Sterling & Caldwell has received a comprehensive, unredacted portfolio of your financial improprieties, billable-hour falsifications, and ethical violations over the past four years—all compiled by my clerks. Your partnership is terminated before you can even finish this sentence."
David let out a choked, desperate sound, staggering backward until his spine hit the refrigerator. "No... no, you can't do that. That's... that's corporate interference! That's illegal!"
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"Second," my father pressed on, ignoring David’s frantic plea, "the District Attorney’s office has received the audio forensics of tonight’s assault. An expedited arrest warrant for felony domestic violence and reckless endangerment of an unborn child is currently being processed."
"And third," Robert Sterling’s voice dropped to a whisper that shook the very foundation of the room, "if my daughter loses this child, David, I will personally shed my judicial robes, step down from the bench, and spend every remaining waking moment of my life ensuring you never see the light of day as a free man again."
