Chapter 6 - The Arrest
"Get out of my way!" Diane shrieked at the officers, her silk dress disheveled, her expensive jewelry clinking violently as she tried to shove past them. "I am Diane Sterling! I own this estate!"
"Ma'am, stay where you are," the lead officer commanded, holding his hands up.
"She's a murderer!" Felicity’s new husband, Grant, suddenly yelled from the stage. He looked at his mother as if she were a dangerous wild animal. "Mom... tell me it's not true. Tell me you didn't do this!"
Diane turned back to her son, her chest heaving, her eyes wild. The polished, elegant matriarch of the Sterling family was completely gone. In her place stood a woman cornered by her own dark history.
"I did it for you, Grant!" she screamed, her voice echoing off the vaulted ceilings of the ballroom. "Your father left us with millions in debt! We had nothing! Eleanor Vance had more money than she knew what to do with, and she wouldn't lend us a dime! I saved this family!"
The ballroom descended into utter chaos. Guests gasped, several elderly relatives fainted into their chairs, and camera flashes began going off as guests pulled out their phones, recording every second of the breakdown.
The lead officer didn't hesitate. He grabbed Diane's arm, pulled it behind her back, and clicked a steel cuff around her wrist.
"Diane Sterling, you are under arrest for suspicion of homicide, bank fraud, and assault," the officer read, pulling her other arm back.
"Unchain me!" she fought against the cuffs, kicking her heels against the marble floor as the officers dragged her toward the double doors. "You can't do this to me! My lawyers will have your badges by morning!"
As she was pulled past me, she stopped for a brief second. Her eyes locked onto mine with pure, unadulterated venom.
"You should have stayed in that room, Claire," she spat at me, blood still showing on her teeth from when she had cut my lip. "You're just as arrogant as your mother was."
"My mother is finally getting justice," I replied, my voice steady and cold. "And you're going to spend the rest of your life in a cell."
The officers yanked her through the doors, her frantic screams fading down the long hallway until the front doors slammed shut.
In the ballroom, complete silence fell over the two hundred guests.
Felicity sank down onto the stage floor, her massive white wedding gown pooling around her as she began to sob uncontrollably. Grant stood frozen, staring at the empty doorway, his entire life shattered in less than twenty minutes.
My father walked slowly toward me, his hands trembling. "Claire... I... I didn't know. I swear to God, I didn't know."
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I looked at my father—the man who had let another woman run our lives because he was too weak to stand up for his daughters.
"That's the problem, Dad," I said softly, stepping back from his reach. "You never wanted to know."
